Heathrow

Could this be the latest excuse for not doing your homework? The Evening Standard has identified that if the third runway goes ahead, over 100,000 pupils will have their lessons interupted by the roar of jet engines.

Although schools closest to the runway will suffer from the loudest noise, schools in Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham will also have regular overhead flights, at up to one every minute-and-a-half. Hardly a peaceful learning environment.

The schools affected are all listed in the Standard article, and include Oratory Roman Catholic Primary School, the feeder school for London Oratory (as formerly attended by the children of one ex-PM, Tony Blair). Would the runway be getting such government support if they were still going there?

It's Sunday, and I'm feeling generous. So let's take a moment to consider the plight of BA boss-man Willie Walsh. British Airways used to be a national institution: the airline into whose arms we collapsed after a week of dealing with our inability to speak other languages. Now it's associated with losing your luggage, strikes, crash landings, lying about climate change and blackmailing pensioners.

Walsh's latest misguided scheme is to persuade local councils to support expansion. Local papers around the airport picked up a BA press release, which urged councils to back the third runway. The same councils which formed the 2M group to oppose expansion. The phrase "coals to Newcastle" springs to mind...

As the end of the Heathrow consultation gets closer, the eyes of the business community turn towards BAA. Expansion can reap financial rewards for investors, and those fat cats in trading houses across the City are always seeking to make some bucks. But is BAA a good investment opportunity?

Not according to the Times, which has dug up a report by investment bank JP Morgan. Those bankers aren't feeling optimistic about the company, claiming that “Based on existing capex facilities [the loan available to pay for capital expenditure] we expect BAA could run out of cash in Q1-2 2009”.

Ouch! Not what Stephen Nelson and his cronies want you to hear. But it's not the first time that analysts have doubted BAA's finances. Last month the Sunday Times reported that BAA was to make a year-end test of whether it was in breach of the covenants on some its loans, and last year we reported that financiers had downgraded BAA's economic status to 'junk'. Looks like that third runway might be a longer shot than we'd thought...

They may not be the Putney Debates, but there's not a lot in it. Residents' meetings held throughout West London have been so over-subscribed that organisers have had to move the location or turn residents away.

The meeting in Putney saw over 700 people queuing to get into St. Mary's Church ("the biggest attendance at any airport meeting ever organised by the council and the biggest public meeting in 20 years" according to a local councillor). A meeting at Chiswick earlier in the week saw over 1,000 people turn up, and organisers had to persuade the local choir to hold their practice elsewhere. A meeting in Richmond-upon-Thames was attended by over 600 people.

There are meetings all over London (details after the jump), so if you have any questions about the expansion, or if you just want to make your voice heard, make sure you go to one. There's also the Central Hall rally on the 25th of February, so if you only go to one event, make it that one!