Heathrow will present details on its planned third runway “later this year”, but the Labour Party has ruled out support for the expansion under existing proposals.
Labour proposes increased use of existing runways at other airports and greater regional connectivity instead of expanding Heathrow.
Shadow Labour transport minister Mike Kane told the Airport Operators Association (AOA) conference: “We probably have enough runway capacity as it is. What we have to do is connect it up.”
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When asked whether Labour would support a third runway at Heathrow, Kane said: “Not at the moment, no. We are committed to our four tests and need to see the spending restraints.”
He said: “Will a third runway be environmentally viable? Will it be economically viable?”
Labour has a 20-point lead in opinion polls, with a general election due before the end of 2024.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye declined to comment on the airport’s plans for a third runway when he addressed the AOA conference. But he repeated the case for expanding Heathrow and promised details on the expansion “later this year”.
Holland-Kaye said: “We have a big investment plan ahead of us. There is some catch-up to do. For example, we need to replace the Terminal 2 baggage system. We have a 40-50-year-old system in a new terminal.
“Longer term we will be looking at how to expand the airport and increase capacity. We’ll be announcing something on that in the next few months.”
He argued: “We need a hub airport in the UK that is bigger than Heathrow [now]. It’s critical for the UK that we have an expanded Heathrow.”
But he added: “We have to meet the four tests Labour has set out, which we will.”
Holland-Kaye declined to give a timeframe for expansion but said: “We’ll have more to say on that later this year.”
The previous leadership of the Labour Party rejected the then government’s National Policy Statement on New Runway Capacity and Infrastructure at Airports in the South of England in June 2018, arguing it failed to meet four “well-established tests” Labour has set for going ahead.
These ‘tests’ are that the increased capacity will be delivered, that the UK can still meet its CO2 reduction commitments, that the noise and local environmental impacts of a third runway are minimised, and that the benefits of expansion are felt across the UK regions not just in the South East.
The shadow transport secretary at the time, Andy McDonald argued: “Heathrow expansion is incompatible with our environmental and climate change obligations and can’t be achieved without unacceptable impacts on local residents.
“The improved connectivity to the regions of the UK cannot be guaranteed and there are unanswered questions on the costs to the public purse and the deliverability of the project.”
The Covid-19 pandemic put talk of Heathrow expansion on hold despite the government giving a conditional go ahead in its 2018 statement.
In December 2020 the UK Supreme Court overturned a Court of Appeal ruling that the runway plans ignored government obligations to reduce carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
However, Howard Davies, who led the near three-year inquiry into UK airport capacity which recommended a third runway at Heathrow in 2015, noted in 2022 that Covid “probably has changed the profile of demand for aviation”.
He suggested “Heathrow would be delighted to fill the two runways it has” and said he would have to “redo the numbers” on the economics of a third runway.
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