Key facts
- Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye set a deadline of by December for government approval of the third runway.
- Woldbye warned that investors, including sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore and China, would pull out without final reassurance.
- The third runway scheme is estimated to cost £33 billion, part of a wider £49 billion investment in the airport.
- Heathrow said the new runway would create an extra 33,000 jobs on top of 105,000 to 120,000 supported locally.
- The earliest the third runway would come on stream, if approved, is 2039, according to the report.
- Heathrow handled 84.5 million passengers last year and its cargo terminal handles 1.59 million tonnes a year.
Heathrow Airport has stepped up lobbying for its expansion, arguing the benefits would be felt far beyond London, according to a report that did not date the lobbying. The push comes as the airport's chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, has set a deadline of by December for the government to approve the third runway scheme.
Woldbye warned that unless the company's investors, which the report said include the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore and China, received final reassurance, they would pull out of the £33 billion scheme. The runway is part of a wider investment in the airport that the report put at £49 billion.
The report said Heathrow handled 84.5 million passengers last year and that its cargo terminal handles 1.59 million tonnes a year, equivalent to 75 percent of goods passing through Britain's airports. It said the airport accounts for £13.5 billion of UK GDP and supports 105,000 to 120,000 jobs locally, with the new runway creating an extra 33,000.
The report said the earliest the third runway would come on stream, if approved, would be 2039. It said Heathrow has ceded its status as Europe's busiest airport to Istanbul, with Paris's Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam's Schiphol and Frankfurt Main taking business.