UK: Heathrow and Stansted push for airports expansion to face down European rivals

Heathrow pressed the government to give the go-ahead to a new runway before the summer on Thursday while rival Stansted said it also wanted to expand as London’s airports position themselves for more competition after Brexit. Britain backed a $22b expansion of Heathrow in 2016, ending 25 years of indecision. It is due to approve a third runway at Heathrow in H1 2018 and the airport’s CE said he is concerned that any delay would cause it to fall behind its major European rivals. “The government has said that (the vote) will take place, but of course, you can’t predict anything from a political point of view,” John Holland-Kaye said. “We are now in a competition with our European rivals for who is going to be the winner out of Brexit... Pushing for that vote in the summer is absolutely vital if we’re going to keep on track.” Holland-Kaye said that airports in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are set to overtake Heathrow in the next five years, and that even if the vote was held in H1 2018, the proposed third runway would not be in use before 2025. Heathrow said passenger numbers were 78m in 2017, up 3.1% compared to 2016, in its full year results for the year ended Dec 31. Stansted, Britain’s fourth busiest airport, said separately on Thursday it had asked for permission to be able to serve 8m more passengers a year, as it seeks to expand at a time when Heathrow and Gatwick are capacity-constrained. <br/>