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Essays Magazine David Cameron Gatwick Heathrow Zac Goldsmith

The flaws in the case for Heathrow

The Airports Commission model was flawed and risks steering the Prime Minister towards the wrong answer—and if Heathrow is picked, saddling customers with higher costs

By John Kay  
October 15, 2015

A Gulf Air jet arrives over the top of houses to land at Heathrow Airport. © REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

Dear Prime Minister, Within the next few weeks, you will have to make one of the most significant, and controversial, decisions of your premiership: whether to expand London’s airport capacity, and if so, whether to choose Heathrow or Gatwick. You will be faced with several thousands of pages of documents prepared by the…

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John Kay

John Kay is an economist and author. His most recent book "Other People's Money" is published by Profile

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