What would be the impact of a third runway at Heathrow?
What would be the impact of a third runway at Heathrow?
Share:
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to give her support on Wednesday for expansion of Heathrow Airport. Here are answers to 14 key questions on the third runway project. – How busy is Heathrow?. Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest two-runway airports, with planes taking off or landing up to every 45 seconds.
– Is Heathrow full?. To increase passenger numbers under the current set-up, airlines must either use larger planes or increase the proportion of seats filled. Heathrow forecasts it will serve 84.2 million passengers this year, an increase of just 0.4% from the 83.9 million last year.
– Why does Heathrow want to expand?. Building a third runway would create extra capacity which could be used to increase flight numbers and boost resilience during disruption. – What would be the environmental impact of expansion?. Planes emit CO2 when they burn jet fuel, which contributes to global warming.
Climate and energy website Carbon Brief says a forest twice the size of London would need to be planted in the UK to cancel out the extra CO2 emissions from expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton Airports. – What about the specific impact on local residents?.
Campaigners say airport expansion would lead to a severe increase in aircraft noise experienced by local communities. – What is the UK’s target for reducing aviation emissions?. To reach net zero for CO2 by 2050. – How does it hope to achieve this?. The aviation sector is largely relying on the development of sustainable aviation fuels to reduce CO2 emissions.
