Heathrow airport breakthrough

February 1st 2025

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After decades of local opposition and political obfuscation, Britain’s Labour government is supporting the construction of a third runway at London Heathrow airport. Read More »

Labour finance secretary, Rachel Reeves, said the government will back the project to support the country’s trade and economic development. At present, the airport’s two runways are operating at maximum capacity and are plagued by flight delays. It is Europe’s busiest international airport.

Airlines and surrounding communities will be consulted before finalising the plan, the airport’s CEO, Thomas Woldbye, said and will go ahead if rules on noise, air quality and emissions are met.

The case for a third runway is stronger than ever, Reeves said. She has set a deadline of 2029 for the government to approve the new runway. Several airports in the region have more runways than London Heathrow, including Charles de Gaulle (4), Frankfurt (4) and Schiphol (6).

In addition to building a third Heathrow runway, Woldbye is seeking funds to upgrade outdated infrastructure as the airport it is now handling a record-breaking average of 230,000 air travellers a day.

Landings and take-offs increased by 5.5% to around 1,302 daily in the first nine months of last year and with a limit of 1,315 aircraft movements each day, growth can only be achieved if airlines fly larger aircraft and leave fewer seats empty.

The issue at Heathrow, International Air Transport Association director general, Willie Walsh, explains is frequently “you have a runway that is taking 45 landings in an hour and it assumes the weather is perfect”.

“Technically at Heathrow, when they say no delay is expected, it means there will be a minimum of 10 minutes delay, so 10 minutes is considered to not be a delay. It has been like that since I was flying,” said Walsh, who started his airline career as a pilot at Irish carrier, Aer Lingus.

The issue is not air traffic control. It is the airport maximizing the aircraft that can land, Walsh said. “So, 45 movements an hour, which if you have a strong wind and given aircraft are separated by distance and not by time, it is going to take longer for the aircraft to cover that distance,” he said.

“The problem is the airport is operating at full capacity where the operating hours mean there is not a spare slot anywhere in the airport. So, you have disruption in the mornings and that disruption continues throughout the day unless you have flights cancelled.”