Welcome to the UK International Airports website
Here you will find everything you need to know about UK international airports in order to help you with your travel planning. The new UK government coalition led by the Conservatives proposes to move away from the current hub and spoke model favoured by airlines whereby Heathrow acts as the hub with internal flights connecting to other regional airports.
To take the pressure off Heathrow the plan is to build a high speed rail network that will replace the need for many of these internal flights. This network would be in a Y shape with Heathrow at the bottom with the western spur connecting to Birmingham airport and Manchester airport, then finishing at Leeds with a second spur running through the East Midlands and into South Yorkshire.
In addition to reducing the number of internal flights they want more direct flights to operate from regional airports with Manchester and Birmingham in particular earmarked for expansion. Manchester airport already has two runways and can accommodate far more passenger traffic than the 17.7 million it currently handles.
These proposals would go down well with passengers who would much rather travel the shorter distance to these airports than drive to Heathrow or Gatwick which are both located south of London. Also by doing this, the UK overall use of carbon fuels should also be reduced by encouraging people to use the rail network to move around the country and also by replacing internal flights by more direct flights. If you have any questions about UK International Airports, please get in touch.