Chancellor John Healey said on 17 October that there is a "pro-growth case" for building a third runway at Heathrow, after Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to say whether he supports the project. There is no change to flights, terminals or security at Heathrow right now; this is a political development in the long-running expansion debate, not an operational one.
Speaking at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Bangkok, Healey said airport expansion, including at Heathrow, had been "a big part of jobs and growth" in recent decades. "The case for a third runway at Heathrow has always been a case for growth," he told reporters, adding that the government is reviewing responses to the Department for Transport's closed public consultation on the airport's National Policy Statement, with "further decisions and announcements" to follow, according to the BBC.
His comments came after Burnham was notably more cautious. The BBC reported that last month the prime minister told it expansion was "a matter for London and Londoners," saying: "I think we ought to hear the voice of people there first. It's not right for me to just jump straight in on the back of the consultation." That marks a shift from his predecessor as chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who made the case for Heathrow expansion a centrepiece of the government's growth argument last year, saying "a third runway is badly needed" and that ministers could not "duck the decision any longer."
The Guardian reported that Heathrow has warned investors could reassess their backing for the project, estimated to cost £33bn, if it does not receive the prime minister's explicit support. The airport's owners have said they need that backing before the end of the year to proceed. Heathrow's chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said earlier this week it would be "good to know" the government's position, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped Burnham would "come along" with the project and that its benefits "will be felt all over the country" through the supply chain, not just in London.
Heathrow currently handles more than 80 million passengers a year across four terminals and two runways, with flights capped at 480,000 a year. A third runway could raise that cap to roughly 720,000 flights a year, nearly 2,000 a day on average. The BBC reported the project would involve demolishing hundreds of homes, diverting rivers and rerouting the M25 through a tunnel between junctions 14 and 15. A new runway was originally targeted to open by 2035, but Heathrow has said planning and regulatory issues could push that back to 2039.
For passengers flying through Heathrow today, nothing changes: this is a policy and investment story about the airport's future capacity, not a disruption to current services. Confirmed by BBC News and the Guardian, both reporting Healey's comments on 16 and 17 October.
What this means for your journey: current flights, terminals and security are unaffected, so check our /parking/ and /public-transport/ pages as normal for getting to and from Heathrow today.