Third Heathrow runway gets go-ahead

Jan 14 2009

The Government is set to give the go-ahead to a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

According to sources, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon will tell MPs that the Government will back the £9 billion expansion of the west London airport, which will include a sixth terminal.

The move will anger dozens of Labour backbenchers, opposition MPs, local residents, local councils and environmental groups who are unlikely to be mollified by any concessions the Government makes.

Concessions could come in the form of an announcement of improved rail links to Heathrow, strict monitoring of Heathrow noise and pollution levels, and plans to make more use of the two existing runways.

Airlines, big business and some unions are in favour of expansion, which will see a 2,200 metre-long third runway constructed by about 2019/20 to run parallel to and north of the existing runways.

The pro-expansion lobby argues that Heathrow is already full and that the economy of London and the whole of the UK will suffer unless there is expansion of the country's biggest airport.

Building the new runway will effectively destroy the village of Sipson and will increase the number of flights at Heathrow from about 480,000 a year to 700,000.

Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West and a leading opponent of the expansion, said he was expecting the decision to be "the wrong one, with the runway going ahead".

He went on: "There will be attempts to sweeten the pill, but it is difficult to conceive of measures that can mitigate the environmental effect of increasing flights out of Heathrow, over one of the most densely populated parts of England, by 50%."

Unions in favour of the expansion say it will create 65,000 jobs and British Airways - the biggest airline at Heathrow - has said that new aircraft will emit 55% less CO2 in 2020 than planes in the year 2000.