In a speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, on Wednesday, the British government formally backed a third runway at London Heathrow Airport, saying that the controversial project has “been delayed, has been avoided, has been ducked,” for far too long.
“The question of whether to give Heathrow, our only hub airport, a third runway has run on for decades,” Reeves said in an ambitious and wide-ranging speech about how the government planned to grow the country’s lagging economy.
“For decades, its growth has been constrained,” Reeves continued. “Successive studies have shown that this really matters for our economy… a third runway could create over 100,000 jobs.”
Complaining about a lack of action over Heathrow’s expansion plans from the previous Conservative government, Reeves says the new administration has invited the airport operator to submit updated plans for a third runway by this summer.
Heathrow’s long-running campaign for a third runway will be bitterly opposed by environmentalists and noise campaigners, who argue that any expansion at Heathrow will destroy the government’s carbon reduction goals.
In 2020, however, the Supreme Court ruled that expansion at the West London airport would not violate the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Heathrow is currently operating at near full capacity, but the airport managed to record its busiest year on record in 2024, with nearly 84 million passengers passing through its doors last year.
A third runway would significantly increase capacity, although the parent company of British Airways, the biggest operator at Heathrow, says it won’t support a third runway. The reason is that the airline would face increased competition from new airlines.
Heathrow’s expansion plans would be subject to gaining planning permission – a process that could take years and be subject to yet more legal challenges. In other words, don’t expect bulldozers to appear at the airport anytime soon.
If approved, Heathrow wants to build a 3,500-meter runway to the northwest of the existing two parallel runways. Two new passenger terminals would be built, while Terminal 3 would be abolished to make way for Terminal 2 to be doubled in size.
