Heathrow reveals plans for third – and possibly fourth – runway
Heathrow has unveiled three options for additional runways at the airport, all of which it claims are quicker and cheaper than building a new hub airport for the southeast.
Even though an extra runway will allow the airport to handle 50% more flights, it said all of the three options would lead to fewer people being affected by noise from the airport than currently. This is due, in part, to the runways being positioned further from London than the existing runways.
"Each mile the runway is moved to the west puts arriving aircraft approximately 300ft higher over London. Continued improvements in aircraft and air traffic technology will also result in fewer people being disturbed. As a result, even with a third runway there will be 10-20% fewer people within Heathrow’s noise footprint in 2030 than today," it said.
The plans, submitted to the Airports Commission which has been set up to examine the need for more airport capacity in the UK, will see a third runway placed to the north, northwest or southwest of the existing airport.
Each would deliver extra air capacity by 2025-9 and would cost £14 billion to £18 billion to build.
Of the three, Heathrow favours the two westerly options because they would have less of an impact on the local community from aircraft noise and fewer homes would have to be bought under compulsory purchases.
The northwest option performs better on noise and residential property impact than the north option whilst costing slightly more and taking slightly longer to build, it said.
The south west option further improves the situation for local residents but increases the cost, timescale and construction complexity. The north option is the quickest and cheapest, but would be noisier and more people would be evicted from their homes under compulsory purchase orders.
However, one of the options could be turned into a fourth runway at Heathrow if demand increases in future, it said.
Heathrow chief executive Colin Matthews added: "After half a century of vigorous debate but little action, it is clear the UK desperately needs a single hub airport with the capacity to provide the links to emerging economies which can boost UK jobs, GDP and trade. It is clear that the best solution for taxpayers, passengers and business is to build on the strength we already have at Heathrow. Today we are showing how that vision can be achieved whilst keeping the impact on local residents to an absolute minimum."
Each option would raise the capacity at Heathrow to 740,000 flights a year (from the current limit of 480,000). That would cater for 130 million passengers a year.
A third runway would provide benefits to the UK worth £100 billion, said Heathrow, which it claimed was well in excess of the benefits from Crossrail or HS2. The new airport would benefit from planned public transport improvements, including Crossrail and HS2 and the charges per passenger would be "likely" to be much lower than at a new hub, it added.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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