Rival Heathrow expansion plan ‘better and cheaper at £10bn’

A RIVAL Heathrow expansion scheme spearheaded by Sir Rod Eddington, the former British Airways boss, and Surinder Arora, the hotel businessman, has claimed it can build a third runway and a new terminal for “substantially less” than the £17.5bn quoted for the current plans.

Mr Arora, a multi-millionaire hotel- ier, said approaching the project differently would save at least £5.2bn and another £1.5bn could be saved by avoiding the major works on the M25 linked to the airport’s expansion.

“Our plans are better and cheaper and that’s because we have worked with the airlines to give them what they want,” Mr Arora said.

He said his proposals, which have been created with the help of US engineering firm Bechtel, could see an expansion scheme delivered for £10bn.

Detractors might argue Mr Arora has only submitted the plan because of the potential revenue from being a developer on the scheme and the fact he would not demolish his Sofitel hotel, as is likely to be the case under current plans by Heathrow.

But Mr Arora said Heathrow had a “track record of overspending” and that it was important to add greater competition into the airport industry, citing New York as an example where different terminals at the same airport are owned by different entities. Mr Arora’s comments came as Sir Rod also took to the airwaves.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Rod said it was “pretty clear you can deliver a third runway and additional terminal capacity in a way that is fit for purpose but costs substantially less than the £17.5bn being proposed”. He said lots of work had been done on terminals to reduce costs. The scheme does not suggest moving the planned location of the runway although Bechtel has provided an alternative option.

The Government is unlikely to consider the latter though as this would force it to restart its airport expansion consultation, which is what led to Heathrow being selected over rivals.

Heathrow has said it can deliver its expansion proposals without raising charges substantially for airlines but Sir Rod said he did not think that was credible. “It’s very difficult to see how it is possible but I think far more importantly airlines themselves don’t believe it is credible,” he said.

Sir Rod added that passenger charges at Heathrow were currently about £20 per passenger in terms of landing and aeroplane parking charges and referenced comments made by Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways owner IAG, that they could rise substantially – potentially to £40.