a day ago
Heathrow's investment plan punctures the third runway myth
S ome flight delays go on for ages. Take the wait for Heathrow's third runway. Passengers have been hanging around for that since 1968, when Harold Wilson sent the nation off on an exciting trip to nowhere.
Rachel Reeves is the latest to have a go, bizarrely making this unbuildable landing strip Britain's No 1 growth project. By now, it will cost £40 billion to £60 billion — or up to three times the airport's £20.5 billion regulatory asset base. And, given Heathrow has £17 billion net debts, no one yet knows how it will pay for it — or what regulatory changes will be required to stop passenger charges quadrupling to about £100 a ticket. That's before the fun to come, too, from a big rejig of flight paths, demolishing 750 homes and encasing all 12 lanes of the M25 in a tunnel, so bringing much of west London to a halt.
