London Heathrow Airport, Europe’s largest airport, will get a third runway. The British government has given the go-ahead for this. “A third runway at Heathrow will lead to growth, boost investment, and make the United Kingdom more open and connected,” said British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves.
According to her, the runway, which will support 100,000 jobs, “will be built in line with our environmental and climate objectives.” Expansions at two other London airports, Luton and Gatwick, are also on the table.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace UK does not react enthusiastically. “A third runway at Heathrow is unlikely to boost the British economy, but it will certainly increase noise, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Doug Parr, an official with Greenpeace in the United Kingdom.
Almost double number of flights
A third runway at Heathrow has been palavered over for two decades. Theresa May’s government gave the go-ahead in 2016, but the project became entangled in legal disputes due to opposition from environmentalists and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
But now, the third runway is coming at one of the world’s busiest two-runway airports, with planes taking off or landing up to every 45 seconds. Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye hailed “recognition of the vital role we play in the UK economy and growth” and assured that the new project will unlock “billions of pounds.”
After all, Heathrow’s current maximum annual number of flights is around 475,000. A third runway could enable it to reach around 740,000 flights a year.
The Scottish Chambers of Commerce also responded enthusiastically. The Scottish Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Heathrow Airport in 2016, intending to ensure that Scotland would benefit from this major infrastructure project.
According to the Scottish Chambers, the expansion of Heathrow Airport will create a “huge opportunity” for Scotland, with billions in investment and thousands of jobs. Scottish whiskey and salmon are, in fact, already two of the biggest British exports out of Heathrow, and Edinburgh and Glasgow are the busiest domestic routes from Heathrow.
‘Disaster for future generations’
However, several industry players, such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the head of Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, reacted more skeptically. According to them, growth would benefit more from lower airport fees or taxes. Heathrow is generally known as one of the most expensive airports in the world.
And like environmentalists, London Mayor Sadiq Khan denounced the “serious impact” the third track will have on Londoners and “achieving our climate change targets.” Climate and energy website Carbon Brief, for example, says a forest twice the size of London would need to be planted in the UK to cancel out the extra CO2 emissions from expanding Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton Airports.
The Scottish Greens also condemned the decision to back a third runway, with transport spokesman Mark Ruskell saying it would be a “disaster for future generations.”
700 houses to be demolished
The scheme would involve around seven years of construction to produce a third runway and a new terminal. It would also require more than 700 houses to be demolished, and the M25 highway to be moved into a tunnel, as well as the construction of a new rail link, works that would cost an estimated 5 billion pounds, or around 6 billion euros, and will be financed through private funding.
However, the project will be subject to “a full assessment” to “ensure that it is profitable” and that the third runway “will be built in accordance with our environmental objectives,” the British Minister of Finance assured.
£42 billion to £63 billion price tag
Last year, 83.9 million passengers passed through Heathrow, 3 million more than the previous record from 2019, and Heathrow forecasts it will serve 84.2 million passengers this year. The airport opened in 1946, initially under the name London Airport. Later, the name was changed to Heath Row’s Hamlet, which had been demolished in 1944 to make way for the airport.
The airport is 25 km west of central London, where five other international airports are located. Four terminals handle more than 200 direct flights to more than 80 countries. With an area of 12.3 km², it has two runways of 3.9 and 3.7 km, which are almost full. The airport welcomed more than 38,000 flights per month in the first half of 2024.
Hence, the project for a third runway is now being relaunched after the UK Supreme Court lifted the ban on the construction of a new runway in 2020, and also because Heathrow has been struggling with delays, long queues, and baggage handling problems for quite some time.
42 billion to 63 billion pounds
The airport announced in December that it will invest 2.3 billion pounds (2.7 billion euros) over the next two years to modernize and improve baggage handling and punctuality. However, building a third runway would obviously be much more expensive. The Times newspaper estimates a price tag of 42 billion to 63 billion pounds (50 to 70 billion euros).
Heathrow saw the completion of the acquisition by the French investment company Ardian and the Saudi public fund PIF of nearly 38% of its capital for 3.87 billion euros at the end of 2024, notably from the Spanish construction group Ferrovial.
Ardian, with 22.6%, is today the largest shareholder in the platform, while the PIF funds hold around 15%. The rest is split between CDPQ (Canada), approximately 12.6%, GIC (Singapore), approximately 11.2%, and China Investment Corporation, approximately 10%, among others.
Generally, anything within Heathrow’s boundary will be privately financed by the airport’s owners, but the airport will seek to recoup this money through fees paid by airlines, which have already expressed concerns about being charged too much.
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