UK needs air travel reform if it wants third Heathrow runway, says airport boss

The UK government must bring in sweeping reforms to the country’s air travel regulations if it wants Heathrow’s controversial third runway to become a reality, the airport’s CE has said. Weeks after chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer threw their weight behind the project, CE Thomas Woldbye said the “risks” facing the runway were largely things that could be addressed by ministers.  “This is a huge project, and there are lots of uncertainties and there are lots of risks,” he told the Financial Times. The government needs to commit to reforming Britain’s airspace to fit in more planes, and to make changes to the regulatory model that sets Heathrow’s landing charges, before the project could go ahead, he said.  “Many of the aspects of this, we call them building blocks . . . need to be delivered by government,” he said, adding he is “confident the government can” make the changes needed.  “I think it is now a shared project,” he added. “We heard the minister say [they are] putting all their weight behind it, we will put all our weight behind it. And I think with those two we can deliver it.”  Heathrow executives have also privately suggested they will want clarity on how the government’s planning reforms could smooth the way, including minimising potential delays caused by judicial reviews. Woldbye said the airport will deliver a “proposal” for a third runway to the government by the summer, including an estimate of how much the project would cost — which he admitted would be “significantly” more than the GBP14b estimated in 2014, largely because of inflation.<br/>