Heathrow's Third Runway Slips Four Years to 2039
Airport bosses have told ministers the 2035 opening date set by the previous chancellor cannot be met, pushing the runway to 2039. The scheme is costed at £49bn, with planning permission sought by 2029 and the parliamentary vote on the planning framework possibly slipping to 2027. Expansion would lift the annual flight cap from 480,000 to 720,000, demolish hundreds of homes and tunnel the M25 between junctions 14 and 15. The airport says it would create at least 108,000 jobs.
The timing is unkind: a growth project announced as a symbol of momentum, slipping four years on the eve of the conference meant to showcase momentum. The transport department’s response was to disown the deadline rather than defend it — there is “currently no live planning application” and “the timeline has always been ambitious”. Heathrow’s own framing is that “it’s right that ambitious targets were set”, which is what an airport says when it has just missed one. The politics are awkward in a second way: the Prime Minister opposed expansion before taking office and described himself as “open-minded” on arrival, so a delay spares him a decision he would rather not make. Watch whether the planning vote is scheduled before the next election or after it.