Heathrow has denied a report that its long-delayed third runway proposals have been shelved as part of a leaked new strategy.
City sources told the newspaper Heathrow had begun drawing up the plans under the header “better not bigger,” a term originally used by anti-expansion campaigners.
The sources said there was limited appetite among shareholders for big expenditure on a radical expansion of the hub.
But Heathrow has hit back at the report.
“The speculation in today’s Sunday Times is wrong, and the plans and actions described are not reflective of our strategy for future growth,” a Heathrow spokesperson said in a statement today.
“Heathrow connects the whole of the UK to global growth, but we’re operating almost at capacity which limits the UK’s economic potential. Of course we’re looking at how we can optimise the current airport to achieve short-term growth within our current infrastructure,” a spokesperson said.
“Longer term, we’re reviewing our plans to make sure the airport has the capacity to drive more global connectivity for the UK economy, while boosting the resilience of our operations for our customers, increasing competition for passengers and meeting our sustainability commitments.”
In an interview with City A.M. last week, chief executive Thomas Woldbye said the plans to expand were “hugely important.”
He told City A.M. the airport was picking apart the details to “make sure we take the right decision at the right time… this is so important that we have to make sure we get it right and we can’t rush it”.
“We’re coming up with the updated strategy during the next couple of months and that will include a piece on how we handle capacity, and also how do we can handle capacity until we get to the third runway, because that is by nature quite a few years into the future,” he said.