British Airways backs Indianorigin entrepreneur
LONDON: Surinder Arora, who arrived here as a teenager from India and went on to build a hotel and property construction empire, has bid to build a new terminal and the controversial third runway at Heathrow that promises to reduce the cost of current estimates by up to £6.7 billion.
His Arora Group, a private hotel and property company with decades of experience operating inside and around the airport, commissioned a review of Heathrow Airport Ltd’s plans, and said there were cheaper and better solutions to expand Heathrow.
British Airways, which is the largest client of Heathrow, supported Arora’s proposals. Willie Walsh, CEO of British Airways’ owner IAG, said: “The government should look closely at Arora’s proposal as it would reduce costs.”
The government gave the green signal to the third runway at Heathrow in October.
The Arora Group said the breakdown of the £6.7 billion savings include a £1.7 billion saving to the terminal design and taxi-way system; not going ahead with the expansion of terminal 2 (saving of £1.1 billion); not building the £1.0 billion passenger transit system for airside passengers, branding it unnecessary while airlines believe it is not needed for their passengers.
A Heathrow airport spokeswoman said: “Heathrow’s expansion proposals are supported by the government and have cross-party political, business and union support. Some of the options we are looking at sound similar to those suggested in this submission, and we will welcome views on these in the public consultation later this year.”