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Heathrow is to investigate whether its proposal for a third runway has stronger local community support than an alternative plan to extend the airport’s northern runway.
Former Concorde pilot Jock Lowe’s plan to create two runways on a lengthened strip was the unexpected inclusion on a shortlist of options to increase capacity that was published last month by the Airports Commission.
Heathrow Airport Holdings is expected to launch a public consultation with local communities soon that could play an important role in determining whether it sticks to its proposal or swings behind the alterative plan, the Financial Times reported.
Heathrow regards aircraft noise as the biggest barrier to its expansion, and one person close to the company stressed it was too early to say whether the airport would back Heathrow Hub’s plan – based on Lowe’s idea, according to the newspaper.
Much would depend on whether the airport’s public consultation found strong support for residents who live under its flight paths having periods when no aircraft pass overhead.
These periods of respite, which exist because Heathrow alternates the runway its arriving flights land on, underpin the company’s third runway plan.
Heathrow Hub’s option would offer less scope for respite because the extended northern runway would be used simultaneously for arriving and departing aircraft, said the Airports Commission in its interim report last month.
But Heathrow’s proposal would expose new communities to jet noise because the third runway would be located to the northwest of its existing site.
The person close to Heathrow said the public consultation would seek to establish local priorities, the FT said. If people felt less strongly about respite, but opposed new communities being exposed to aircraft noise, the company could then embark on a detailed examination of Heathrow Hub’s proposal.
Heathrow said: “We believe this principle [of runway alternation and respite] remains important for local communities and we plan on asking people for their views early in 2014.”
Lowe told the FT that Heathrow Hub’s proposal offered “quite a lot” of respite, adding it would also reduce the number of residents affected by night flights because aircraft could land on the western end of the extended northern runway.
He said at some point Heathrow Hub and the airport had to “work together” as nothing could happen at Heathrow without the owner’s backing.