The CEO of Heathrow Airport Thomas Woldbye, has urged Keir Starmer and the government to back plans for a third runway and he has warned that without backing from Downing Street, the airport would not be able to push ahead with plans to expand.

Heathrow’s CEO, Thomas Woldbye speaking at the Airlines 2024 conference earlier this week has urged Sir Keir Starmer and the Government to back plans for a third runway.

Thomas Woldbye also claimed that talks had gained positive momentum, revealing he hopes to have won government support by the end of 2025.

He said: “I’m going to the UK government to say the demand is there. But this would be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in UK history, so we have to ask government, are you along for the journey?

Or if not, we forget it.

“Otherwise we keep wasting money and time.

I’m serious about getting a decision and about getting the right decision.”

Plans for a third runway had been on pause since the pandemic, however these comments suggest they are back on.

“However would Prime Minister Starmer, who opposed the plan in principle during the 2018 parliamentary vote and change his mind?”

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Heathrow is the best-connected airport in the world.
That competitive advantage for UK plc already enables over £200bn of British trade annually.

“But growing the economy means we need to add capacity at the UK’s hub airport which is full.

That’s why we’re planning to unlock capacity by improving and upgrading our existing infrastructure, while also looking at potential options to deliver a third runway at Heathrow in line with strict tests on carbon, noise and air quality.”

Jim McIlroy the founder of Sell to Heathrow and WPOZ.co.uk and a local equality campaigner who is demanding compensation for the most-blighted airport community of Stanwell Moor also has little doubt: “There can be no doubt that the expansion will go ahead it’s the right thing for the sake of the UK economy. In 2020 over 40% of UK goods exports passed through Heathrow, it was Europe’s largest port but since the pandemic it has been losing GBP billions in cargo revenue to Schiphol and Franfurt and this can’t go on.  Although we will suffer because of the expansion with more noise,new noise and more pollution, all we want is for HAL to do the right thing by our residents and honour its long-outstanding and moral debt to our community by including our village in it’s Wider Property Offer Zone.”