Heathrow and Gatwick are different in terms of____

单项选择题

Even before economist Howard Davies thinking where to put extra airport capacity in Britain, rejecting the idea of building a big new hub in the Thames Estuary, the backlash had begun. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London and an enthusiastic supporter of the Thames plan, spluttered in advance, then branded the decision "shortsighted". NIMBYs opposing the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick groaned, knowing that the remaining options all involve building or extending runways at one of those airports. Sir Howard’s final recommendation is sure to run into heavy fire. To make matters worse, he and his team must hazard a guess about the future of air travel. Heathrow and Gatwick are both full, or close to it, and want to expand. But the two airports presently serve quite different parts of the market. Some 37% of passengers at Heathrow transfer between flights. Nearly a third of its customers are on business. By contrast, only 13% of Gatwick’s customers are business travellers. Most are going on holiday. Just 7% transfer there—a proportion that has fallen by half over the past decade. Heathrow’s shiny new Terminal 2, which opened in June, is full of expensive shops and restaurants run by Michelin-starred cooks to entice rich passengers. At Gatwick, recent improvements reflect its popularity with holiday goers: a wider lane at security gate has been set aside for families, while an area in the southern terminal is now reserved for elderly passengers, with comfortable seats and a small duty-free shop. The airports’ managers also hold entirely different views about the way the airline industry will develop, and its place in the broader economy. Much of the argument for expanding Heathrow rests on the idea that hub airports are, and will remain, vital. Without further expansion, boosters argue, fewer flights to distant places such as Wuhan and Xiamen will be available to businessmen. If the capacity plight persists, domestic flights are more likely to be delayed or cancelled. European airports will pick up those passengers instead. "That’s our GDP leaking out," says Jon Proudlove, the general manager of air-traffic control at Heathrow. Not surprisingly, Gatwick takes a different view. Over the past ten years the growth of low-cost airlines has been explosive, points out Sir Roy McNulty, chairman of the Gatwick group. People are travelling in different ways, with more "self-connecting" to keep costs down. Although connections with emerging markets are important, Europe and North America will remain Britain’s largest trading partners, he argues. London will be a destination in its own right.

Heathrow and Gatwick are different in terms of______.

A．scale and capacity of passengers
B．the proportion of foreign tourists
C．passengers’ power of consumption
D．passengers’ nature and destination