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Heathrow has big things up its sleeve. Earlier this month, the northwest London aviation titan unveiled a huge plan to build 10 football pitches worth of new retail, eating and lounge space and this week, the airport officially submitted its ‘shovel-ready’ plans for a £21bn third runway. It called the plans a ‘once-in-a-generation redesign’.
The UK’s largest air hub said that the additional runway can be privately funded and, with government support, it could get planning permission by 2029 and be built by 2035. Once complete, the airport predicts that it’ll be able to introduce an extra 276,000 flights per year and boost its current capacity of 84 million passengers up to 150 million. It argues that the increased choice and competition will help drive down flight fares.
The new 3.2km runway would require a diverting the M25, building a new road tunnel under the airport and widening the motorway between junctions 14-15. Thomas Woldbye, the CEO at Heathrow said that the new M25, 100m west of the current one, would be ‘wider and it will be safer and it will have more capacity’.
Beyond the new runway, Heathrow wants to put £12bn towards building a new terminal – called T5X – and £15bn towards expanding Terminal 2 and eventually closing Terminal 3. There would also be new two dedicated parkways and improvements to Heathrow’s bus and coach station, making travel to the airport even easier. When everything is rounded up, the cost of the proposals comes to a whopping £49bn.
Here’s a CGI image of the completed project (including runway and all terminal infrastructure) to give you a better idea of what it could look like.
Woldbye said: ‘It has never been more important or urgent to expand Heathrow. We are effectively operating at capacity to the detriment of trade and connectivity.
‘With a green light from Government and the correct policy support underpinned by a fit for purpose regulatory model, we are ready to mobilise and start investing this year in our supply chain across the country. We are uniquely placed to do this for the country; it is time to clear the way for take-off.’
Meanwhile, the government has invited other interested parties to submit their own proposals for the airport. Alternative plans have come from hotel Arora Group (owned by hotel tycoon Surinder Arora), which has proposed making the new runway shorter to ensure ‘reduced risk’ and avoid ‘spiralling cost’.
Heathrow says that its runway design ‘already has Parliamentary support’. The ball is now in the government’s court as to whether the plans will go ahead.
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