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When an industry is in trouble, is it the best move to open doors or to close them? Does it make sense for a financially struggling football team to buy new expensive players in the hope that they generate more money somehow? Does it make sense for Heathrow to be thinking about building the long debated and now infamous third runway?

The dramatic rise in fuel prices means that airlines have been stretched to their limits. Some of the smaller companies have had to give in and hang up their boots, XL being the latest. The fuel price is the biggest blow to an airline, but, according to a report by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) this month, a large proportion of that fuel could and should be reduced if planes didn’t have to circle over the airports waiting for a runway to become available.

Heathrow might be the busiest international airport in the world, but its two runways are being pushed to their limits. Advice has been generated by the management consultants Mott MacDonald and their director of Aviation Strategy, Laurence Price, made it pretty clear that building a new runway at Heathrow would help the airlines cut down on the amount of fuel they have to pump into their planes. At the moment airlines are forking out roughly 40% of their costs on fuel alone. Is it time to start speculating to accumulate?