Heathrow looks to develop expansion plans
The final recommendation by the Airports Commission follows three years of extensive and robust consultation, evidence gathering and analysis. It recognises the unique role that Heathrow plays as Britain’s only hub airport. The Commission also confirms that Heathrow’s new plan can be delivered while reducing its local and environmental impacts. Heathrow said it also confirms that it can be delivered within carbon and air quality limits and with significantly fewer people impacted by aircraft noise than today.
The Commission has urged the Government to make an early decision on its recommendations, saying that “further delay will be increasingly costly and will be seen, nationally and internationally, as a sign that the UK is unwilling or unable to take the steps needed to maintain its position as a well-connected open trading economy in the twenty first century.”
Heathrow’s expansion plan has seen growing support from several quarters, including the British Chambers of Commerce, over 30 local Chambers of Commerce from every region and nation across the UK, London First, the Manufacturers’ Association, EEF, the British International Freight Association, the Freight Transport Association and CILT, as well as the major trade unions, the GMB and Unite.
John Holland-Kaye, Chief Executive of Heathrow Airport said: “This debate has never been about a runway, it’s been about the future we want for Britain. Expanding Heathrow will keep Britain as one of the world’s great trading nations, right at the heart of the global economy.
"Our new plans have been designed around the needs of local communities and will meet carbon, air quality and noise targets, and provides the greatest benefit to the UK’s connectivity and its long term economic growth.
"We will create the world’s best connected, most efficient and most environmentally responsible hub airport at the heart of an integrated transport system.
"The Commission has backed a positive and ambitious vision for Britain. We will now work with Government to deliver it.”
