British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander confirmed on Tuesday her support for the plan of the company that owns Heathrow airport, the busiest in Europe, to build a third runway. The project, at the main British Airways (IAG) base, is worth £49 billion (over €55 billion).
“This decision marks an important milestone, reaffirming the UK’s commitment to maintaining its position as a world leader in aviation, innovation and economic growth,” he said in a written statement to the House of Commons, after the news was announced the day before by Financial times.
The proposal from Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited, in which funds from countries such as Qatar, China and Saudi Arabia participate, and from which Ferrovial was born, proposes to build a third runway of 3,500 meters and prevails over that of the Anglo-Indian hotel magnate Surinder Arora, who had designed a shorter and less expensive runway. Heathrow’s plan involves moving the M25 motorway, one of the UK’s busiest and most important roads, around much of London.
“We welcome the Government’s confirmation of the expansion of Heathrow, the UK’s gateway to growth, which will mean greater connectivity, more trade, a better experience for passengers and a huge economic boost for the British companies who help design and build it,” London Airport celebrated in a post on the social network
In a document detailing the project, Heathrow claims that its plan “is the only one that, with the right policy measures, could meet the government’s plan to gain project approval in 2029 and have the third runway operational within a decade.” The third runway includes a terminal complex to the west of Terminal 5 which will be called T5X and the expansion of Terminal 2 is also proposed, which will lead to the closure of Heathrow’s oldest terminal, T3.
With the new runway, Heathrow expects to offer up to 276,000 additional flights per year, rising from 480,000 to 756,000, resulting in at least 30 new daily airline routes by 2040, including around ten new long-haul routes. “Our plans would allow airlines to offer more frequent flights on existing routes, which would significantly increase the airport’s passenger capacity,” the document explains.
The new infrastructure also includes a 50% increase in carrying capacity, as well as the reconfiguration of land access, including the realignment of the M25 motorway with a tunnel under the new runway, car parking and an extension of the public transport interchange. The plan, according to the owners, is compatible with reaching the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, something that Greenpeace political director Douglas Parr considered this Tuesday “a mere illusion”.
