• Heathrow’s chief executive said there had been “positive momentum” in discussions with the British government over building a third runway at London airport, a project that has been controversial for decades.
• “This would be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in UK history, so we need to ask the government: are you in on it? If not, we forget about it,” Thomas Woldbye said at the the Airlines 2024 conference.
• Woldbye said he needed a decision by the end of 2025 so Europe’s busiest airport did not “continue to waste time and money”.

LONDON — Heathrow’s chief executive said Monday he would pressure the British government to make a final decision on building a third runway at London airport by the end of 2025, adding that the latest discussions had experienced “positive dynamics”.

Thomas Woldbye told the Airlines 2024 conference that the airport needed additional capacity and this would support economic growth and the government’s industrial strategy. However, he added that it is ultimately up to the state to approve these plans, which have been highly controversial for decades.

“Heathrow is running out of capacity… So if we want to get past a certain number at Heathrow, whether it’s 90 million passengers or something around that, we need a third runway, it’s not a debate,” Woldbye said.

“The next thing is how to achieve that, if that’s what we want. Here, ‘we’ aren’t just Heathrow, it’s the airlines, it’s the government, it’s Parliament, it’s is everyone around us. Because if the UK doesn’t do it, If you want an airstrip, why would it be built? And it’s not up to Heathrow to decide. transportation is a matter of government,” Woldbye said, acknowledging that it was “not an easy decision.”

“The project is there, we know how to build it. It has been there for a long time,” he continued. “I go (to the UK government) and say all this, the demand is there. But this would be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in UK history, so we have to ask the government, are you part? If not, we forget it.”

Woldbye added that there was “definitely positive momentum” behind such discussions with the new labor administrationand that he hoped for a final decision by the end of 2025 “one way or another”.

“Otherwise we continue to waste time and money. I really want to make a decision and make the right decision,” which would be guided by the UK’s overall strategy, he said. Woldbye explained that if the project got government approval but no public funding, then the airport would have to present a clear and costed proposal to Heathrow shareholders which he believed would find support.

The airport is trying to increase its capacity as much as possible through efficiency measures on its two existing runways and is developing a growth plan that does not involve a third runway, he said.

UK Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, speaking earlier today at the same conference, said: “I will always support airport expansion as long as it grows our economy and meets our environmental commitments. »

Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth are fiercely opposed to the expansion of Heathrow on the grounds that it would increase greenhouse gas emissions and harm local wildlife. Others argue that it will increase noise pollution and traffic in a busy residential area, and will require significant public disruption, including major works to the M25, the main road around London.

In 2020, the UK’s highest court overturned a lower court ruling which had ruled that a previous government’s approval of a third runway was unlawful because it failed to take into account the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Heathrow’s expansion would be welcomed by many airlines, which have long bemoaned fierce competition and the high costs of purchasing flight slots at the transport hub.

Passenger numbers at Heathrow soared to 79 million in 2023, from 62 million in 2022, as the pandemic travel rebound continued. The airline’s record was 80.9 million passengers in 2019.

Below the airport expansion proposal published six years agowhat is expected to be updated, the project would see the construction of a third runway to the northwest of the current two runways, as well as the construction of a new terminal to replace the existing Terminal 3.

Its operations are currently capped at 480,000 flights per year, while its current plan would add another 260,000 flights to that figure.