Heathrow expansion

Ahead of the parliamentary vote on a third runway for Heathrow airport, Sky News asked James to outline the technological dimensions of the issue

Both enthusiasts for new airports and their opponents talk about innovative technological solutions very rarely, if at all. Yet just as more efficient aircraft engines could cut airlines’ CO2 emissions, so better engine shrouding, together with the mass secondary glazing of homes around airports, could help cut the acoustic impact of a third runway at Heathrow. Air scrubbing devices around airports could also begin to solve some of the pollution problems that a new runway will bring.

To stigmatise airports and air travel by telling people to fly less, if at all, is no solution. Logically, that would deny most Europeans the ability to get to, say, America. Mistake!