HEATHROW 3RD RUNWAY NOW JUST A “PROBABLE OUTCOME”
Press Release
23 February 2023
For immediate use
HEATHROW 3RD RUNWAY NOW JUST A “PROBABLE OUTCOME”
· Campaigners believe the project is now out of money and out of date.
Heathrow view a 3rd runway as just a “probable outcome”, following a difficult year of mounting debts, recovery from the impact of the pandemic and rows over high airport passenger charges. The admission was made in the outline of the company’s strategic plans for the coming year, where the admission about the status of the 3rd runway project is made (1).
Heathrow Airport’s annual accounts released today (23 February) show that they are heavily indebted, with £12bn due to be repaid by 2030 alone. To improve its financeability the airport wants to secure higher passenger charges to appease its body of shareholders, which include Ferrovial, Quarter Holdings, the Government of Singapore and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme.
The airport also admits to having spent £3m on expansion related projects in 2022, despite the project being paused, and it is not clear what this money was spent on (2).
Campaigners from local campaign group Stop Heathrow Expansion believe that the airport must focus on better, not bigger and announce this year that the third runway project will be scrapped. The government’s policy enabling Heathrow expansion – the Airports National Policy Statement – is now five years old, with the evidence base for the document up to a decade old.
Justine Bayley, Chair of Stop Heathrow Expansion, said:
“Heathrow expansion is both out of money – as we have seen today from its enormous mounting debts – and based on extremely out of date policy.
“Rather than trying to cling on to its long-held hope of expansion, in order to appease its shareholders, Heathrow should focus instead in being a better, not bigger airport so that those living in nearby communities can get on with their lives without repeated threats of expansion hanging over them”.
ENDS.
Notes