Heathrow’s long delayed third runway project has at last been given permission to leave the gate where it has been stuck for the last 16 years.
Obviously the third runway can only start generating returns for the private investors that will fund it when Heathrow can charge the planes extra for landing and taking off on the shiny new tarmac.
Under the current regulatory architecture carriers that fly in and out of the airport face paying higher charges - and their passengers saddled with more expensive tickets - for improvements that competitor airlines able to access an enlarged Heathrow will benefit from in a decade’s time, but without having to fork out.
The third runway plan, originally approved by Gordon Brown in 2009, was slammed into cold storage in February 2020 just as the pandemic began to rip up all the aviation industry’ assumptions about future demand for flying.
This will reduce the scope for endless legal challenges to new “nationally significant infrastructure” - a category the third runway undoubtedly fall into.
