Super Heathrow airport unveils 4-runway plan which would let it handle one million flights per year
Heathrow could become a four-runway “superhub” with up to a million flights a year, it emerged today.
Bosses at the airport unveiled proposals for a third runway, and the possibility of a fourth, insisting either option would mean fewer residents affected by noise.
Three schemes for a third runway would increase the maximum flights from 480,000 to up to 740,000 a year. Heathrow bosses say this would maintain Heathrow as a “Premier League” airport and “win the race” to be Europe’s leading aviation hub.
A fourth runway would push the number of flights towards a million, according to analysis of figures in Heathrow’s “A New Approach” masterplan.
But the proposals, which include a Terminal 6, sparked an immediate backlash from residents’ groups, with warnings of a new High Court battle to derail them.
As revealed by the Standard last month, one of Heathrow’s preferred third runway options is to the south-west of the existing airport in the Stanwell Moor area.
Costing £18 billion, it would be partly built on reservoirs and need a section of the M25 to be tunnelled.
The other favoured development is to the north-west, while the third possibility is to the north. Heathrow’s chief executive Colin Matthews said: “After half a century of vigorous debate but little action, it is clear the UK desperately needs a single hub airport with the capacity to provide the links to emerging economies which can boost UK jobs, GDP and trade.
“Today we are showing how that vision can be achieved whilst keeping the impact on local residents to an absolute minimum.”
Some areas, including Richmond, Putney and Windsor will experience less aircraft noise, under all of Heathrow’s third runway plans, though others would suffer more including to the south of West Drayton and an area west of Staines.
The airport chiefs insisted a new south-west runway, with flights coming in higher over London, would mean up to 50,000 fewer residents suffering aircraft noise in 2030 than in 2011, partly due to quieter planes.
They also argued that all three of their options, costing between £14 billion and £18 billion, would be far cheaper than an £80 billion “Boris island” airport in the Thames Estuary, and could be built by 2029 at the latest.
The three options would mean the loss of between 850 and 2,700 homes, though, the airport maintained another runway would boost Britain’s economy by more than £100 billion over 50 years, allow Heathrow to cater for up to 130 million passengers a year.
But John Stewart, chairman of anti-Heathrow expansion group HACAN, said: “We will fight any proposal for a new runway tooth and nail.
“We owe it to future generations to stop a third runway. Even with their best efforts to curb noise, to imagine that can be done with a third or fourth runway is a flight of fantasy.”
Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth council and spokesman for the 2M Group which represents 24 town halls mainly in London.
He added: “It doesn’t matter how they rearrange the deckchairs at Heathrow, an extra runway will seriously blight the country’s most densely populated area with aircraft noise.”
The 2M Group says a four-runway Heathrow would mean three million people affected by aircraft noise, as well as breaching EU air pollution laws. The claims strongly disputed by the airport.
Business chiefs backed Heathrow expansion, with Corin Taylor, of the Institute of Directors, saying: “With quieter planes and steeper descents, it can be done in a sensitive way.” While not currently proposing a fourth runway, Heathrow says that such a development could be done if the demand is there after 2040.
They have not done precise workings for two extra runways, but the full-length third runway, at 3,500 metres, to the south-west and north-west each adds on up to 260,000 more flights a year, on top of the current 480,000 maximum.
“Our initial analysis shows that it would be possible to have four runways at Heathrow while still reducing the total number of people within Heathrow’s noise footprint compared to today,” says its report being submitted to the Davies Commission.
Heathrow bosses stressed that a third runway would not only safeguard 114,000 existing jobs but create 70,000 to 150,000 new ones.
Heathrow development director John Holland-Kaye said closing Heathrow and siting a new runway elsewhere would represent “the biggest mass redundancies in British history”.
The airport bosses added that each mile a third runway is moved to the west puts arriving aircraft approximately 300ft higher over London.
The Davies Commission is examining the need for additional UK airport capacity. It will not submit its final report until after the general election.
The Runways
SOUTH WEST
Cost: £18 billion
Extra flights at airport: up to 260,000
Opening date: 2029
Length of runway: 3,500 metres
Noise*: -20 per cent
Homes lost: 850
Built over the King George VI and Wraysbury reservoirs, aircraft taxiing areas and terminal facilities would be on the site of Stanwell Moor, with local properties compulsorily purchased. Building over reservoirs would mean re-providing wildlife habitat and flood zone storage. A larger section of the M25 would need tunnelling than with the north-west option, and Junction 13 would be reconstructed.
Pros and cons: this option performs better on noise and residential property loss but takes longer to deliver and would cost more.
NORTH
Cost: £14 billion
Extra flights at airport: up to 222,000
Opening date: 2025
Length of runway: 2,800 metres
Noise*: -10 per cent
Homes lost: 2,700
Built over the villages of Sipson, Harlington and Cranford Cross, it would allow the Harmondsworth conservation area including the Tithe Barn and St Mary’s Church to be preserved. The runway would be 1,000 metres shorter than the existing runways. Any aircraft would be able to land but four-engine models such as the A380 could not routinely use it for takeoff.
Pros and cons: this option is the quickest and cheapest for a third runway but has a comparatively high noise and property-loss impact.
NORTH WEST
Cost: £17 billion
Extra flights at airport: up to 260,000
Opening date: 2026
Length of runway: 3,500 metres
Noise*: -15 per cent
Homes lost: 950
Built on the site of the Old Slade sewage works, Harmondsworth Moor, Harmondsworth and Longford, the runway would be just south of the M25/M4 junction and part of the M25 would need reconfiguring.
Properties in Longford and Harmondsworth would be compulsorily purchased but the communities of Sipson, Harlington, Cranford Cross, Colnbrook and Poyle would be kept. Heathrow is examining if the Tithe Barn and St Mary’s Church in Harmondsworth could be preserved.
Pros and cons: better on noise and impact on homes than a runway to the north and could be delivered comparatively quickly and cost-effectively, without some of the wider construction challenges for the south-west option.
Evening Standard
