Heathrow’s third runway

Following a difficult year of mounting debts, recovery from the impact of the pandemic and rows over high airport passenger charges, even Heathrow Airport now view the third Runway as just a “probable outcome”.

The admission was buried in Appendix 2 of the company’s strategic plans for the coming year, released alongside its annual accounts for 2022.

The company’s accounts show that they are heavily indebted, with £12bn due to be repaid by 2030 alone. To improve its ability to finance at third runway, the airport wants to secure higher passenger charges to appease its body of shareholders, which include Ferrovial, Qatar Holdings, the Government of Singapore and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme.

The news comes just weeks after Heathrow’s CEO, John Holland Kaye, announced his resignation. That he is going now suggests either he no long believes a third runway is possible, or that he has been pushed as his employers believe someone else might be more successful.

Heathrow expansion is both out of money – as we have seen from the airport’s enormous and mounting debts – and based on extremely out of date policy that no longer reflects the current situation.

The government’s policy enabling Heathrow expansion – the Airports National Policy Statement – is n ow five years old, with the evidence base for the document up to a decade old.

We at Stop Heathrow Expansion believe that rather than trying to appease its shareholders by clinging on to its long-held hope of expansion, Heathrow should focus instead in being a better, not bigger airport.

They should announce this year that the third runway project will be scrapped so those living in nearby communities can get on with their lives without the threat of expansion continually hanging over them.

Justine Bayley, Chair, Stop Heathrow Expansion