Heathrow speeding up review of 3rd runway plans after strong post-Covid bounce back

Heathrow bosses are speeding up their review of the airport’s third runway plans after a much quicker than expected bounce back in passenger numbers after the pandemic.

The airport today upgraded its forecast of the number of passengers expected to use Heathrow this year from 81.5 million to 82.4 million.

The record currently stands at 80.9 million in 2019.

It is also expected to handle 475,000 aircraft movements this year, only just under the “hard cap” limit of 480,000.

When asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether Heathrow’s business plan involved wanting a third runway, Chief financial officer Javier Echave said : “We are looking at that option”.

He said it was looking at making a decision on restarting the programme – shelved during the covid pandemic- “as fast as we can” as the west London airport gets “fuller and fuller”.

But he stressed it was an “important and complex” issue so could not put a timescale on when this would happen.

“As you can see we are getting more and more full and therefore we are looking at when is the right time to really restart the programme.”

Pressed when this decision could be taken, he added: “This is a decision that we can’t rush, it’s an important decision and complex decision and therefore we will get into that as fast as we can.”