Heathrow Airport risks becoming a “ghost town” if the Government presses ahead with a third runway scheme which is unaffordable, MPs have been warned.
There are two rival blueprints for a third runway, one proposed by Heathrow and a second by a consortium called Heathrow West, a subsidiary of the Arora Group.
Heathrow Airport’s proposed third runway
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport’s proposal is for a £33 billion scheme for a 3,500-metre new runway, rising to £49 billion once terminal and other improvements are included.
Giving evidence to the committee, Surinder Arora, Heathrow West’s chairman, said: “At the end of the day, any scheme has to be affordable.
“If it's not affordable, then people won't use the airport. The airlines won't come in and be able to afford to come into Heathrow.
‘What we can't do is build something, and we are three, four times the price of Schipol or Charles de Gaulle or other airports.
“Then it would become a ghost town.”
How the Heathrow West scheme avoids having to move the M25
Heathrow West
Heathrow West does not believe the economic case currently stacks up for expanding its proposed 2,400-metre runway to 2,800 which could happen under its plans, but it might be affordable in future years.
However, Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye has dismissed the rival scheme as "not providing the capacity that we and the airlines need".
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government had fully backed expanding the west London airport.
As part of his devolution agenda, he has stressed the importance of London’s view of a bigger Heathrow.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan opposes a third runway
PA
He warned that the planned investment in the scheme could go overseas unless there is certainty.
“Our private investors, if they cannot invest in Heathrow which they own, they don’t own any other airports in the UK, and there is no project like a Heathrow expansion, then that money will be invested somewhere else in the world, maybe in a motorway in Spain or a hospital in Italy,” he explained.
Heathrow expects to submit a formal planning application “in the next couple of years”, he added.