Thread: Heathrow CC
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Old September 25th 19, 04:03 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Recliner[_4_] Recliner[_4_] is offline
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Default Heathrow CC

Someone Somewhere wrote:
On 25/09/2019 15:18, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:51:18 on Wed, 25 Sep
2019, tim... remarked:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...-charge-is-exp

ected-to-r
aise-1-2bn-a-year-wv9qn2c36?shareToken=2e1812617e77460e9d40ce4f851b4 ca3



Ah, greenwash at its finest. I'm sure reducing the number of
vehiclesÂ* goingÂ* to and from the airport will really make up for the
extra emissionsÂ* from theÂ* aircraft using the new runway such as the
A380 which burns half a tonÂ* of fuelÂ* just to get from the gate to
take off position.

What we really need here is fuel per passenger.

I believe the fuel costs about £1 per passenger.

from the airline mag [1] I was reading yesterday, it apparently costs
150,000 to fly a 767 round trip Europe-USA (didn't specify East or
West Coast)

No mention was made about how that cost was apportioned between
operation costs and capital costs.


A typical fare for a flight like that is going to be £400 each way. If
they spend £1 of that taxiing to the end of the runway, we really do
need to find something more useful to discuss than spending 90p on an
electric tug instead.


Wasn't the argument less about the money, and more about the fact they
were introducing a congestion charge at LHR due to the locally high
pollution levels and one of the points was less aircraft running their
engines for less time equates to potentially a better local pollution
reduction strategy than a reasonable reduction in cars in the area could
achieve?

Quick back of an envelope calculation: If your car does 40MPG, then
that's about 10km per pound at 130p per litre, which is basically one
return car trip into the Heathrow environs per passenger. Once you take
into account that aviation fuel is tax free, then a better comparison is
oil price - £50/150 litres, or 33p/litre, so even taking into account
refining cost etc that's probably twice that distance

Given that not every passenger arrives individually in a taxi (the worse
possible scenario in terms of car miles per passenger in the area) then
removing that £1/pax in fuel saves burning more hydrocarbons locally
than would ever be feasible by removing all cars from the LHR area.

Of course, cars don't start their journeys on the perimeter (however
that is defined to be) but that's where the congestion charge is to be
enacted to reduce pollution...


The aircraft engines will still need to be started and warjed up some
minutes before take-off, so they'll still burn much of that fuel. The
powerful tugs needed to haul the aircraft will also consume fuel on their
journeys in both directions. I don't think there are any electric options
yet for that sort of powerful tug, so that means diesel. They will also
need drivers, and dedicated routes around the airport that don't get in the
way of planes. So it's not a clean option, and would almost certainly cost
more than the current system — which is why no airport does it.