Expansion of Heathrow Airport

This article is about future expansion of Heathrow Airport. For expansion in the past, see Heathrow Airport.

The **expansion of Heathrow Airport** has involved several proposals by Heathrow Airport Holdings and an independent proposal by Heathrow Hub, to increase capacity at Heathrow Airport.

In December 2006 the Department for Transport published a progress report on the strategy which confirmed the original vision of expanding the runways. In November 2007 the government started a public consultation on its proposal for a slightly shorter third runway (2,000 metres (2,187 yd)) and a new passenger terminal.

The plan was supported by businesses, the aviation industry, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress and the then Labour government. It was opposed by Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties as opposition parties and then as a coalition government. Boris Johnson, the past Mayor of London, as well as many environmental and local advocacy groups and prominent individuals also opposed the project. While the expansion was originally cancelled on 12 May 2010 by the new coalition government, as of 1 July 2015 the plan has been suggested as the best option by the Airport Commission. On the 25th of October 2016 a new northwest runway and terminal was approved by the Government. It was opposed by Zac Goldsmith, who resigned as Conservative MP for Richmond Park in protest.

## Plans

### Third runway and sixth terminal

In January 2009, the then Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon announced that the UK government supported the expansion of Heathrow by building a third runway (2200m) and sixth terminal building. The government would not undertake construction, but encourage the airport operator (BAA) to apply for planning permission and carry out the work. The government anticipated that the new runway would be operational in 2015 or soon after. In 2009 the government declared that they did not intend that the third runway should be used at full capacity when it is first opened. Initially the extra flights should be limited to 125,000 a year until 2020, rather than the 222,000 at full capacity.

In January 2009, more detailed plans for the third runway were approved together with a sixth terminal and also a major new Heathrow Hub railway station which would provide better high-speed domestic rail links to the Great Western Main Line. Plans for a high-speed rail connection direct to Heathrow were however dropped during 2010.

In March 2010, the route for High Speed 2 was announced which did not include a direct connection with Heathrow, preferring a new station at Old Oak Common to the west of Paddington on the Crossrail route.

On 12 May 2010, the expansion was cancelled by the new coalition government. BAA formally dropped its plans on 24 May 2010. However, London First, a lobby group representing many of London's businesses and major employers, continue to press the coalition government to rethink their opposition to the expansion of the airport.
On 1 July 2015, the Airport Commission recommended the third runway and sixth terminal, with a projected capacity of 740,000 flights per year after construction has ended.

### Northwest runway

In July 2013, the airport submitted three new proposals for expansion to the Airports Commission, which was established to review airport capacity in the southeast of England. Each involved the construction of a third runway, either to the north, northwest or southwest of the airport. The commission released its interim report in December 2013, shortlisting the northwest third runway option at Heathrow, extending an existing runway at Heathrow and a second runway at Gatwick Airport. The full report was published on 1 June 2015, finally confirming the Northwest runway and new sixth terminal as the commission's chosen proposal. The commission estimated the cost to be around £18.6 billion; £4 billion higher than Heathrow's own estimate. The northwest runway and terminal plan was approved by Government on 25 October 2016.

## Support

### Reasons for expansion

The principal argument stated in favour of expanding Heathrow is to enhance the economic growth of the UK. As the UK's major hub airport, Heathrow is able to attract many transfer passengers and so is able to support a very wide range of direct flight destinations at high frequencies. It is the world's busiest airport based on number of international passengers. The government claims that Heathrow's connectivity helps London and the South East compete with other European cities for business investment, which in turn produces economic benefits for the rest of the UK. Should Heathrow's connectivity decline compared to London's European competitors, the UK would fall behind.

The government's argument is that Heathrow is on the brink of suffering a decline in connectivity. Heathrow’s runways are now operating at around 99% capacity, which increases delays when flights are disrupted, and risks competing European airports gaining destinations at Heathrow's expense. The government estimates that building a third runway would allow Heathrow to increase its connectivity, bringing £5.5bn of economic benefits over 2020-2080. However, the British Chambers of Commerce estimated the economic benefits are £30 billion for the UK economy over the same time scale and has also stated that for every year the programme is delayed, it costs the UK between £900 million and £1.1 billion.

Despite the fall in passenger numbers caused by the global recession, supporters of expansion argue that demand will increase again when the recession ends.

Some of the capacity added to Heathrow by the addition of a third runway could be used to re-instate or improve flight connections to UK cities. Several cities have seen their connections to Heathrow reduced or lost over recent years as airlines have reallocated the airport's limited capacity to more profitable long-haul flights.

It was suggested that a third runway would increase Heathrow's resilience to disruption, and so reduce emissions from aircraft waiting to land.

Construction was estimated to provide up to 60,000 jobs. Operating the expanded Heathrow was expected to create up to 8,000 new jobs at Heathrow by 2030, with multiplier benefits to West London.

BAA believed that the proposed North South High Speed Rail link joining with Heathrow would funnel more passengers to Heathrow, putting further pressure on capacity and boosting the case for a new landing strip - with increased demand in particular for long haul flights.

### Supporters

The UK's Blair-Brown government took the lead in driving forward the expansion of Heathrow. The particular members of that government most closely associated with that drive were the then Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) and past Transport Secretaries Alistair Darling, Ruth Kelly, Geoff Hoon and Lord Adonis. Lord Mandelson, the then Business Secretary, also voiced his support for the scheme.

The majority of the UK Conservative Party leadership including former Chancellor George Osborne was also in favour of expansion.

The stance of both Labour and the Conservatives was broadly supported by a number of groups and prominent individuals:

* **Aviation sector:** including BAA Limited and Flying Matters.
* **Airlines:** including All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, easyjet, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
* **Airports:** including Glasgow Airport, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Leeds Bradford International Airport, Newcastle International Airport and Aberdeen International Airport.
* **Business organisations:** The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and 32 local chambers of commerce, including the London Chamber of Commerce and West London Business.
* **Local authorities:** Slough
* **Manufacturing & freight sector:** including the Freight Transport Association, the British International Freight Association, the EEF, SEGRO and Black & Decker.
* **Trade unions:** including the GMB Union, Trades Union Congress and Unite the Union.

### Advocacy in support of expansion

In May 2007, the British Airports Authority (BAA) and several other companies involved with aviation established Flying Matters to lobby the UK government and generally advocate for the development of the airport following on from a suggestion from Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airways that aviation industry needed to develop a shared solution to climate change. The organisation was created to help demonstrate that the aviation sector was "taking climate change seriously". In 2009 Greenpeace acquired and published a detailed confidential report into the group activities and plans which claimed that The Department for Transport was independently approaching Flying Matters for support on key issues on the Climate change bill.

Prior to the 2007 party conferences Flying Matters issued a number of press releases aimed at the conservative party which challenged their opposition to the 3rd runway: "Voters in key marginals shun Conservative proposals for higher taxes on air travel", "'Green' holiday tax plan puts Conservatives 6 per cent behind Labour in 30 most important marginals in the Country","Families will be priced out of air travel if Heathrow fails to expand" and "Stopping new runways would cost half a million new UK jobs". The objectives outlined in the leaked 'draft Strategy and programme for 2009-10' later confirmed that the organisation felt that it was "Essential to help establish a foundation from which the Conservatives could amend their position post election". The organisation's budget for 2008-2009 was £390 thousand.

### Lobbying

The aviation sector had close links with political decision makers which many players moving between roles through the controversial 'revolving door'. For example: Joe Irvin was advisor to John Prescott from 1996 and 2001 (Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions as well as Deputy Prime Minister) before working for various element of the aviation lobby and becoming head of corporate affairs at BAA in 2006 before he became 'Special Advisor' to Gordon Brown in 2007 when he became prime minister. He was succeeded at BAA by Tom Kelly who took the title 'group director of corporate and public affairs'; Kelly had previously been the official spokesman for Tony Blair when he was prime minister.

Freedom to Fly was formed during the preparation phase of the "Future of Aviation white paper 2003" by BAA and others It was 'fronted' by Joe Irvin, a former political adviser to John Prescott who subsequently became Director of Public Affairs at BAA Limited Their director, Dan Hodges, is the son of Glenda Jackson, Labour MP and former Aviation Minister.

## External links

* BBC NEWS Q&A: A third runway at Heathrow
* Heathrow expansion - London Borough of Hillingdon
* Heathrow expansion - London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
* Stop Heathrow Expansion (campaign group)
* Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (HACAN)
* Airports Commission: interim report, 17. Dec 2013
* Airports Commission: final report, 01. Jul 2015

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