Originally Posted by
cauchy
If there's no 3rd runway hopefully the government will introduce Air Passenger Duty onto connecting passengers, to discourage Heathrow's use as a hub (unless unavoidable) and to free-up seats for point-to-point passengers.
The difficulty with that is, like any hub, the connecting passengers sustain a lot of Heathrow's value to the UK by being able to offer such an extensive range of destinations, making it attractive to international businesses etc. For example, the BA flights to New Orleans, Cape Town, etc would not be viable without connecting passengers making up a proportion of the load. Start losing those to Amsterdam etc and businesses using these and having their European base here will be liable to move away.
Talk to the Canadians in Montreal about what a good idea Mirabel international airport was, because the city only thought about people travelling to Montreal, not about the substantial connecting business they used to have, which was not only lost but is generally felt to have accelerated the decline of Montreal, once Canada's pre-eminent commercial city, to be supplanted by Toronto.
Regarding the Heathrow slots, they are ultimately under the control of whatever organisation the UK government places them with. This is why it just seems so unwise for Walsh/Cruz to antagonise the UK government, as has been happening. It only needs the government to say "Use it/Lose it prevails", and Easyjet/Ryanair will be in those slots at Heathrow in a flash, to BA's long term disadvantage.