Heathrow's long-promised third runway won't be ready until 2039 at the earliest, four years after the date the British government set for it. Airport executives have told ministers the 2035 target can't be met, according to The Times, and the government has responded that the date "has always been ambitious."
The runway is the centerpiece of a £49 billion (more than $60 billion) expansion that would let Heathrow handle up to 756,000 flights and 150 million passengers a year. Last November, the government chose Heathrow's own proposal as the basis for the project and set 2035 as the target for first flights. That plan calls for a 3,500-meter runway to the northwest of the airport, supported by a new terminal complex west of Terminal 5. Even at the time, industry observers called the 2035 date highly optimistic.
Timeline
Heathrow's Third Runway
Contrail
What It Means for Travelers
As we reported earlier this month, what actually limits Heathrow is a government cap of 480,000 flights a year, and the airport already operates close to that ceiling. Every year the runway slips is another year in which airlines fight over the same fixed number of slots, the permission to take off or land at a specific time.
For passengers, that scarcity tends to show up as higher fares on the busiest routes and fewer new destinations, since airlines put their limited slots toward the flights that earn the most. It also makes delays harder to recover from, because a schedule with no slack has nowhere to absorb a late arrival.
The Politics
The delay lands at an awkward moment for the project. Andy Burnham, who became prime minister in July, has reportedly told Labour lawmakers he has never been in favor of Heathrow expansion. He hasn't said publicly what he'll do, but his position puts him at odds with Chancellor John Healey. As Britain's finance minister, Healey has given the project his full backing and argues the economic case for it stacks up. Burnham has said in the past that spare capacity at Manchester and Birmingham should be used instead of building at Heathrow. The government's independent climate advisers at the Climate Change Committee have also warned that expansion conflicts with the UK's climate targets.
Heathrow still needs planning approval before construction can begin, and Burnham is reportedly waiting on a report from Parliament's Transport Committee before saying more. We'll update this story as more details come in.
