Heathrow to start planning third runway

Heathrow will today start laying the groundwork to build a third runway, even though the Government is yet to give the green light to the controversial £17.6bn infrastructure project.

John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of the West London hub, will announce that the airport will immediately begin drawing up a strategy to secure the materials and services it will need from contractors.

Heathrow, which wants to start building in 2020, will launch a so-called “procurement forum” of representatives across a variety of industries to help it formulate its plans, as it moves into what it describes as the “delivery phase” of its politically contentious expansion.

The hub is pressing ahead with plans to grow just days after the Government-appointed Airports Commission concluded that a third runway, to the northwest of Heathrow’s current northern landing strip, is the “best answer” to the country’s airports capacity crisis, as long as it is accompanied by strict measures on air pollution and noise.

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Mr Holland-Kaye will claim today at the Runways UK conference in London that the Commission’s recommendation ends the debate over where a new runway should be built in the South East.

However, it is view not shared by the many opponents of the project, which include local residents and influential members of the Conservative Party who represent communities near the airport.

The Government is not bound by the Commission’s conclusions and David Cameron, the prime minister, has said a final decision will be made on airport expansion by the end of the year.

Prominent Tories Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith are vehemently against the runway and are already campaigning against it. Mr Cameron, who blocked a different plan to expand Heathrow five years ago, must also consider resistance to the runway from within his own Cabinet, where five members are thought to oppose the landing strip.

^{A Virgin Atlantic aircraft comes in to land at Heathrow Airport}

Furthermore, Heathrow faces a battle with Gatwick, which had proposed a second runway, a plan that was not backed by the Commission. Gatwick’s boss Stewart Wingate has refused to concede defeat in the wake of the Commission’s final recommendations and has pledged to lobby the Government to give his airport’s proposal its backing, instead of Heathrow.

The West Sussex airport believes that part of the Commission’s analysis is flawed, particularly its passenger forecasts. It is understood that Gatwick will publish letters it sent the Sir Howard Davies-led Commission last year that highlighted its concerns, as it attempts to sway the Government. The Commission acknowledged Gatwick’s criticism and defended its estimates in its final report last week.

According to Sir Howard, a third Heathrow runway will create as many as 77,000 new jobs and would boost the British economy by £147bn over 60 years.

The Confederation of British Industry will warn today that the UK could lose £31bn in trade because of a lack flights to Brazil, China, India and Russia by 2030, as the country waits for new runway capacity to open up.