Willie Walsh, the CEO of IAG, which owns, amongst others, British Airways, has opined that the best way to fund the third Heathrow runway is to introduce toll roads around the airport, because otherwise it'd be unaffordable. 'There is no point in having infrastructure if people won't use it because it's too expensive,' he is quoted as saying. Walsh doesn't specify which roads, but it must be the M4 and the M25, because there aren't any others. Clearly, this will encourage rush-hour commuters to get value for money by catching aeroplanes instead, won't it?
I imagine, however, that Mr Walsh simultaneously subscribes to the published Airports Commission declaration that this runway will bring some £211 billion of benefits to the British economy by 2050, although it isn't stated with any precision where this bounty will come from.*
Like I said...
* Not, presumably, Sharm el-Sheikh, at least for now.
I don't think that idea is going anywhere, frankly, not even to Sharm el-Sheikh. Not that the M25 is ideal for going anywhere, mind you, much of the time. So many quiet hours I've spent there, going nowhere at all.
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