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Heathrow has said it has identified options that could enable delivery of an expanded hub airport for Britain for £2.5 billion less than the plans submitted to the airports commission in 2015.
The revised £14 billion option would be delivered without compromising on Heathrow’s local commitments or passenger experience, the airport argues.
The proposals – which will be released in detail as part of Heathrow’s public planning consultation in January – have been developed in close cooperation with the airlines and would ensure that Heathrow expanded with airport charges staying close to today’s levels.
The options that would enable the identified £2.5 billion cost reductions involve three things:
Repositioning new buildings over existing public transport and baggage infrastructure. This includes building additional capacity at both Terminals 2 and 5 rather than a dedicated terminal or satellite building between today’s northern runway and the new northwest runway.
Technological advancements which reduce the amount of terminal space required to process passengers without compromising experience.
More efficient phasing of capacity construction – incrementally increasing terminal capacity in blocks to better match growing demand.
Heathrow executive director, expansion, Emma Gilthorpe, said: “The secretary of state set us the challenge to deliver an expanded airport for Britain with passenger charges staying close to current levels.
“We have now identified potential savings of £2.5 billion and are increasingly confident we can meet the affordability challenge.
“We are looking forward to presenting detailed options on how to do it in our consultation in January, and while we will continue to work to reduce the cost of expansion, we will not compromise on our local commitments.”
Heathrow will be launching a ten-week public planning consultation which will run from January 17th-March 28th.
The consultation will give the public an opportunity to see and feedback on Heathrow’s expansion proposals.
The consultation will be formed of two parts – the first on infrastructure design options for an expanded Heathrow and our approach to managing and reducing environmental and community impacts, while the second will focus on the future design principles for airspace around Heathrow.
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