Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye has told the UK government that a third runway is a “huge missed opportunity” it can’t afford to lose, warning that investors will put their money “somewhere else in the world” if ministers don’t commit. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said it would be “good to know” the government’s position after Prime Minister Andy Burnham refused to say whether he backed expansion.
The ultimatum comes from Heathrow’s private investors. The airport is owned by a group led by French private equity firm Ardian, alongside the Qatar Investment Authority, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the China Investment Corporation. “It’s not public money,” Woldbye said. “So hence, it will not go into the UK.” He suggested investors would decide where to put their money in the new year.
Who Profits From Mobility
The plan would raise Heathrow’s flight cap from 480,000 a year to 720,000, nearly 2,000 flights a day on average. The airport already serves more than 80 million travellers annually through four terminals and two runways. Woldbye said Heathrow is “full.”
The cost is estimated at £33bn. The Department for Transport says expansion has the “potential to deliver around £40 billion in economic benefits across the country.” Woldbye said the benefits reach “all the way from the north all the way to the south of the UK” through Heathrow’s supply chain. The runway is “not just for Londoners.”
Heathrow’s owners are demanding certainty from a government that last year, through then-chancellor Rachel Reeves, announced it backed expansion because it could not “duck the decision any longer.” The Department for Transport now says it is reviewing consultation responses and “considering the appropriate next steps.” It is still finalising its Airports National Policy Statement, last updated eight years ago, in 2018.
Who Pays the Price
Construction would demolish hundreds of homes, divert rivers and reroute the M25 between junctions 14 and 15 through a tunnel under the new runway. Local residents, politicians and climate campaigners have opposed the scheme for decades.
Woldbye said noise had fallen by a “stark” amount over the past 40 years and that the “trend will continue.” But the residents facing demolition and climate campaigners opposing the project aren’t quoted in the base reporting; the argument comes from the airport’s chief executive and the government’s own statements.
The timetable is slipping. Heathrow had scheduled the runway to open by 2035, nine years from now, subject to submitting and winning approval for plans. The airport says planning and regulatory issues could delay the opening by four years, to 2039. “My biggest concern is actually the years of uncertainty,” Woldbye said.
A Government Under Pressure
Burnham, who opposed the scheme as Mayor of Greater Manchester, said he believed the matter was “for London and Londoners.” Speaking to the BBC last month, he said: “I think we ought to hear the voice of people there first. It’s not right for me to just jump straight in on the back of the consultation.”
Woldbye said he hoped the prime minister would “come along” and pointed out that unions back the project. Downing Street declined to comment.
The chief executive hasn’t yet met current Chancellor John Healey. He said he would tell him that the airport “contributes dramatically to the economy” while “we are now full.” Heathrow is preparing a planning application it plans to submit in the next couple of years, with any decision guided by the government’s national policy statement.
Ministers face a plain demand: commit, or the capital goes elsewhere. Qatari, Saudi, Chinese and French investors hold the leverage, and the government hasn’t yet said whether it will meet their terms.