London Heathrow will submit third runway plans this summer
Heathrow Airport plans to submit proposals for a third runway to the government by summer, following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ recent show of support.
In a statement on Monday, the UK’s largest hub said it was in the process of finalising proposals with stakeholders that would bring the long-delayed, highly controversial project back to life.
It came after Heathrow reported its busiest ever January, with over 6.3m passengers passing through its terminal gates, a five per cent year-on-year increase.
“2025 has started how we mean to go on – serving record breaking passenger numbers and delivering trade and investment across the whole of the UK,” chief executive Thomas Woldbye said.
“To ensure we continue on this upwards trajectory, the government has signalled their support for an expanded Heathrow. We’ll now work with ministers to progress the necessary policy changes required to advance our growth plans.”
Heathrow’s record-breaking January follows its busiest ever year of traffic in 2024, with passenger numbers booming amid huge demand for travel across Europe.
January was the eleventh month in a row the airport averaged over 200,000 passengers a day amid particularly strong demand for trans-Atlantic routes.
Some 1.2m passengers travelled between the UK and US over the month, up 8 percent compared with 2024. Travel between the UK and Middle East also grew significantly, rising 9.3 per cent to 774,000.
Heathrow also said around 120,000 tonnes of cargo was transported to and from its runways in January, twice as much as all other UK airports combined.