Heathrow is preparing to unveil plans to squeeze 100mn passengers a year through its cramped west London airfield, raising capacity by nearly a fifth before it pushes ahead with plans for a controversial third runway.
The airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye will on Wednesday set out proposals for “phased expansion programme”, which will start with improvements to its current site but ultimately “lay the groundwork for a third runway”.
Airport bosses believe they can fit another 15mn people per year through the current airport by upgrading existing facilities, a multibillion-pound project that will include improving Terminals 2 and 5 and increasing the number of aircraft stands.
The airport said this would be the largest ever private investment programme into the airport, eclipsing the £4.3bn spent to build Terminal 5 in 2008.
In a speech at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant on Wednesday, Woldbye will say the airport is acting to “answer the chancellor’s call”, after Rachel Reeves last month dramatically swung the government’s support behind growing the UK’s only hub airport.
Woldbye will also pledge to then build a third runway, which could mean the airport could then handle about 140mn passengers per year.
“A third runway is critical for the country’s future economic success, and I confirm we will submit our plans for a third runway to government this summer,” Woldbye will say.
Heathrow will pledge to use UK steel in the upgrade in a boost to Britain’s domestic producers after American President Donald Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium sold into the US.
Plans for Heathrow have been repeatedly delayed by political rows and economic turbulence over the past 20 years, but Reeves said she wanted the company to press ahead with seeking planning permission — a process that will take most of this five-year parliament.
The third runway proposals being prepared for the summer will not be a formal planning application, which could take a year or more to prepare, according to planning experts.
But Dale Vince, the wind farm tycoon and major Labour donor, criticised ministers for their “stupid” decision to encourage a third runway.
“Increasing Heathrow doesn’t make sense,” Vince told the Financial Times. “It’s nonsense.”
He cited a report by the New Economics Foundation think-tank that argued allowing Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton to expand would reverse all the climate benefits of decarbonising the electricity system by 2030, which is one of Labour’s flagship policies.
Gatwick and Luton are expected to get the go-ahead for their own expansions this spring.
Some Labour MPs believe Heathrow will struggle to get planning permission for the third runway within this parliament and that the project is being used by Reeves as a way to convince sceptical executives that she is serious about growth.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband last week told the BBC a final decision on Heathrow expansion was still “some years off” and would have to meet the UK’s strict carbon budgets.
One minister told the FT that “the economic case is irrefutable, but the environmental case is unanswerable” for the third runway.
“It’s one of the most complex projects in the world, it makes Crossrail look like a bit of knitting, it makes the Lower Thames Crossing look like a teddy bear’s picnic,” they said. “I don’t see it happening this parliament if ever.”
Woldbye will say the airport can be extended within “strict environmental safeguards”.
The Department for Transport said any expansion plans “would be assessed against the government’s legal, carbon and environmental obligations.”
Vince, who gave Labour more than £5mn ahead of last year’s UK general election, was also critical of senior ministers for vowing to sideline ecologists in their attempts to build new infrastructure.
“Labour seem to be on the back foot, and they are trying to present some rightwing credentials to the public by saying this stuff about growth. It’s a big divergence from what they said before the election. They’re trying to say ‘we are hard enough to make these decisions’,” he said.