UK’s global trade future bleak without Heathrow expansion

The Freight Transport Authority launched a last minute bid to persuade members of parliament to vote in favour of Heathrow expansion on Monday.

FTA deputy chief executive James Hookham said: “Without an expanding global hub airport, with increased capacity for business, the prospects for trading partnerships to be established by importers and exporters with the new world markets we will need to work with are pretty bleak.”

Brexit is less than a year away and the expansion of Heathrow will be able to reassure the British industry that it will be able to keep trading efficiently with its partners outside the EU said Hookham.

“Without the increased flexibility and access that an expanded Heathrow will provide, it will be difficult to diversify our economy away from EU trade and maximise the opportunities which Brexit offers,” he added.

The growth of e-commence further pushed the importance being able to meet international markets. “Trucking goods to Paris, Frankfurt or other European airports with the necessary connectivity would be a further handicap to seamless business arrangements, if the expansion of Heathrow is not carried out,” said Hookham.

“Further delays and frustrations for the project would send the wrong signals to Britain’s global trading partners about our seriousness to become an independent global trade partner.”