London Smog

The protests in London against the expansion of Heathrow Airport bring a couple of points into focus.

The first of these is the dismal record of on-time departure of flights at Heathrow, an occurrence that's become more and more common at large International facilities. The Evening Standard reports that on a recent morning every single flight departed late, 14% by more than an hour. This is attributed to overcrowding and a poor record of baggage handling. I would suggest a third cause, cheap tickets fueling demand for more and more flights.

The response, as always, is to build more capacity. More capacity will create more opportunities to add flights and lower prices in a perpetual spiral. The demand for cheaper tickets also exacerbates the very causes of the overcrowding, namely poor baggage handling and too many planes for too few gates. Expansion plans, or any plans to deal with the overcrowding, are generally started only when the situation reaches crisis proportions. Much easier to sell under those conditions.

The next would be exactly that problem that the protesters are pointing out; the destruction of the natural and community environments that expansion will foster. Airplanes have been identified as a major contributor to global warming, air pollution, and the destruction of the ozone layer. And the Heathrow expansion would eliminate homes and businesses in the area. While, presumably, the people dislocated will be compensated, perhaps even fairly, the natural environment will, again, be viewed as a "commons", something for the developers to utilize without cost.

So the trade off is cheap airline tickets for serious travel inconvenience and ongoing environmental degradation. The sad fact is that an overwhelming majority will favor the cheap tickets. This will not change until we recognize that we need to pay full price for our life styles.