§ 76. Commander Courtneyasked the Minister of Aviation if he is satisfied that the passenger handling and other facilities available at Heathrow Airport will be adequate to deal with the expected increased volume of summer air traffic in 1965; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StonehouseHeathrow can certainly cope with the traffic scheduled for 1965, although most facilities are fully extended during peak times and there may be some difficulty over car-parking.
We are engaged on an extensive building programme to increase passenger handling and other facilities, including a new terminal building and car parks.
In the meantime it would help if passengers would use the airline coach services between the town terminals and the airport, or, where this is not possible, make use of the excellent off-airport car parking services.
§ 77. Commander Courtneyasked the Minister of Aviation if he will give an undertaking that, in the event of a decision to curtail existing air services or to refuse new applications by reason of congestion at Heathrow Airport, he will not discriminate against British air corporations in favour of foreign-controlled airlines by requiring the transfer of any British Overseas Airways Corporation or British European Airways foreign or domestic services from Heathrow to Gatwick or Stansted.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsAs the traffic out-grows the capacity of Heathrow the distribution of operations between the airports serving London and the S.E. of England will present difficult problems for all operators and will only be 241W resolved by discussion and mutual co-operation. In the meantime it would clearly be inadvisable for me to give any undertaking which might appear to prejudge the issues involved.