The government would support a runway extension at LBIA as they would at any regional airport with potential, as they do not want to have to face tackling the problem of much additional runway capacity in the southeast. They would much prefer additional runway capacity and extensions at regional airports, although this would result in London losing out even further to continental rivals such as Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam who have twice as many runways as Heathrow already, as well as twice as many flights to key markets such as China.
However back to the crucial issue which is that the Councillors who have campaigned to get the PIA 777 in to LBA in order to solve this noise problem, have absolutely nil in the way of ideas as to the operational issues bringing the beast in to LBA at the moment. It would have to fly lower on approach at both ends of the runway especially 14, eradicating any potential noise reductions, and would still be delayed. If they really want to solve this problem they should use any influence they have to urge a runway extension to be built asap, and then aircraft would not need to fly as low over the affected communities, and increase the landing distance at both ends.
A loan should be able to be arranged for an expanding outlet such as LBA to enable this to happen, and therefore enable the PIA 777-200's and more importantly the 300's to come in, and therefore sort out this so called noise problem. Once PIA's 777-200 starts regularly a runway extension means that the 300 can be substituted, and therefore eradicate the problem of the flight having to be diverted to Manchester, which seems to happen at least once every month.
It would also as White Heather states mean the potential for a lot more long haul flights such as PIA to Karachi and Lahore, as well as an all important daily service to Dubai with Emirates A330-300, and then the 777-300ER, which Newcastle handles with no problems at all, with a runway which is little more than 250 ft longer than LBIA's. Ethiad and Qatar Airways could be tempted with similar daily services, as well as all important transatlantic services to the USA.
At the moment the 787 should not be a problem, as it is specifically designed for longer flights from shorter runways, although the problems they have had with it alone and the delays in its introduction these have lead to, vindicate White Heather's comment about it being a few years before regular operations commence. The poor state of PIA means there is no chance of them acquiring any Dream-liners at any time in the near future, not that they would acquire one just for the :BA service, and no one would have the right to expect them to.
The last runway extension of 1984 was built in order to bring the airport in line with other regional airports, and having visited East Midlands this week which has a 9000ft runway, and Birmingham extending theirs to around 9400ft the airport should show similar initiative and get theirs extended to at least 8400ft, or ideally to 9000ft. 1200ft should be added on Runway 14 , with the remaining 418-420 ft on Runway 32 which given the proximity to the local residential area is around the largest extension you can implement at this particular end.
As the introduction of the PIA 777 has been mooted since around the autumn of 2009 the initiative should have been taken back then, and the extension could have been built by now, and the PIA 777 would have been introduced on March 13th as planned, and all so called noise issues could have been eradicated.
However back to the crucial issue which is that the Councillors who have campaigned to get the PIA 777 in to LBA in order to solve this noise problem, have absolutely nil in the way of ideas as to the operational issues bringing the beast in to LBA at the moment. It would have to fly lower on approach at both ends of the runway especially 14, eradicating any potential noise reductions, and would still be delayed. If they really want to solve this problem they should use any influence they have to urge a runway extension to be built asap, and then aircraft would not need to fly as low over the affected communities, and increase the landing distance at both ends.
A loan should be able to be arranged for an expanding outlet such as LBA to enable this to happen, and therefore enable the PIA 777-200's and more importantly the 300's to come in, and therefore sort out this so called noise problem. Once PIA's 777-200 starts regularly a runway extension means that the 300 can be substituted, and therefore eradicate the problem of the flight having to be diverted to Manchester, which seems to happen at least once every month.
It would also as White Heather states mean the potential for a lot more long haul flights such as PIA to Karachi and Lahore, as well as an all important daily service to Dubai with Emirates A330-300, and then the 777-300ER, which Newcastle handles with no problems at all, with a runway which is little more than 250 ft longer than LBIA's. Ethiad and Qatar Airways could be tempted with similar daily services, as well as all important transatlantic services to the USA.
At the moment the 787 should not be a problem, as it is specifically designed for longer flights from shorter runways, although the problems they have had with it alone and the delays in its introduction these have lead to, vindicate White Heather's comment about it being a few years before regular operations commence. The poor state of PIA means there is no chance of them acquiring any Dream-liners at any time in the near future, not that they would acquire one just for the :BA service, and no one would have the right to expect them to.
The last runway extension of 1984 was built in order to bring the airport in line with other regional airports, and having visited East Midlands this week which has a 9000ft runway, and Birmingham extending theirs to around 9400ft the airport should show similar initiative and get theirs extended to at least 8400ft, or ideally to 9000ft. 1200ft should be added on Runway 14 , with the remaining 418-420 ft on Runway 32 which given the proximity to the local residential area is around the largest extension you can implement at this particular end.
As the introduction of the PIA 777 has been mooted since around the autumn of 2009 the initiative should have been taken back then, and the extension could have been built by now, and the PIA 777 would have been introduced on March 13th as planned, and all so called noise issues could have been eradicated.
