It’s time to think bigger than one new runway

SIR – The ongoing debate about airport capacity (Letters, December 14) is surely missing the point.

Various major European airports are already well ahead of us. Amsterdam Schiphol has no fewer than five big runways, plus a smaller sixth for light aircraft. Paris Charles de Gaulle has four big runways. Frankfurt has four. Brussels has three. Zurich has three.

If Britain does not bite the bullet and find somewhere to construct a truly modern airport, with at least four runways on the same site, then our position in world aviation will be lost, and quickly.

Denys Murphy Henfield, West Sussex

SIR – I travel regularly from America to other destinations, via Britain. If I fly into Heathrow and need to change planes, I normally have to get on a bus, change terminals, and get rescreened. The whole process takes at least an hour. If I need to get from there to Gatwick, I have to face the M25 gridlock, due to the lack of a fast rail link between the airports.

At present neither Gatwick nor Heathrow can compete with the large European airports.

Robin Cooper Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

SIR – In May 1946, Lord Winster of the Cabinet Committee on Civil Aviation announced that Heathrow would eventually have six runways. Plans published three weeks later showed the airport extending north of the A4 Bath Road and south-east to the site of today’s Terminal Four.

Seventy years on, we’re still dithering about one extra runway.

Richard Jones Goostrey, Cheshire

SIR – China’s construction of an artificial island in the South China Sea, complete with runway, highlights the potential for a similar project in the Thames estuary.

Osaka in Japan also has an extremely efficient airport constructed on a manmade island. It is connected to the mainland by a road and rail causeway link.

John Whalley Longridge, Lancashire