Member Article

Heathrow expansion: chief exec refuses to accept Commission’s key conditions

A divide has formed between the Airports Commission and Heathrow airport’s chief executive with regards to its proposals to build a third runway on site.

In its report earlier this year recommending that a third runway be constructed at the west London airport, the Commission stated that the plans would only be allowed if certain conditions were met to protect the health and wellbeing of long-suffering Londoners.

However, speaking to MPs yesterday, John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow chief executive, repeatedly refused to commit the airport to one of those key conditions, that there should be no flights before 6.00 a.m.

Holland-Kaye also dismissed concerns about deteriorations in air quality by insisting that a third runway, with 50% more flights at the airport, would not lead to any more cars on the roads.

Consequently, he also refused to commit to even the modest contribution to widening the roads that the Airports Commission said should come from Heathrow. Nor would he endorse the Commission’s recommendation that a fourth runway be ruled out.

Appearing before MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee yesterday, Holland-Kaye said: “There are huge benefits to local communities for getting rid of the early morning scheduled arrivals between 4.30 and 6am,” he told them.

“Equally there is a big cost to that for the UK economy because those are very valuable trading routes to the Far East, Singapore and Hong Kong. It’s not easy to resolve that. We are working on it.

“I’m confident that we will be able to find a way through that and that there’s a real opportunity to significantly reduce night flying at Heathrow with expansion.”

In response, The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP said: “John Holland-Kaye this afternoon showed that, at its first outing, the recommendation of the Airports Commission is falling apart.

“I have never accepted that a third runway at Heathrow is the right solution even with all of the Airports Commission’s conditions, but Mr Holland-Kaye’s flat refusal to rule out the possibility of a fourth runway or to commit to conditions to limit air pollution, night flights and noise shows that he simply doesn’t understand that the recommendation of a third runway is crucially tied to these conditions.

“As so often with Heathrow in the past, it is all ‘take’ and no ‘give’. Today’s hearings, apart from showing that Heathrow is willing to undermine the Airports Commission in pursuit of its own ends, prove once again that Heathrow expansion is the wrong solution to Britain’s aviation needs.

“It also makes it politically impossible for the Government now to endorse the Airports Commission’s recommendation. Only by taking a bold approach and committing to a long-term solution to the east of London will we be able to create the jobs and growth this country needs to remain competitive.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .