BBC News
29 January 2025
The expansion of Heathrow Airport is expected to be welcomed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, after years of heated debate.
The move, alongside confirmation of the expansion of other London airports including Gatwick and Luton, is likely to be met by fierce opposition.
Critics say increasing air travel would make it much harder for the UK to meet its climate change commitments.
However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the BBC: "Sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand."
Heathrow is already the UK's busiest airport, serving more than 80 million travellers a year with its four passenger terminals and two runways.
A third runway would mean demolishing hundreds of homes, diverting rivers, and rerouting the M25 motorway between junctions 14 and 15 through a tunnel under the new runway.
The number of flights, currently capped at 480,000 a year, could go up to 720,000 - or nearly 2,000 a day on average.
Heathrow told the BBC that it would eventually be able to serve up to 140 million passengers a year once the third runway is in operation.
Plans to expand London's other airports are already further along than Heathrow's and have in the past been viewed as an alternative to a third Heathrow runway.
Work is set to start this year to expand capacity at Stansted's terminal.
The government is due to make a decision on Gatwick airport by 27 February.
Meanwhile, a decision on Luton airport's expansion, which includes plans for a new terminal, is due by 3 April.
Read on: Heathrow third runway: What's the plan for expanding the airport? - BBC News