London Heathrow Airport. House of Commons Library Standard Note
This note looks at how Heathrow has developed over the past twenty years or so, including the construction of Terminal 5; the aborted proposals for a third runway and a sixth terminal; and plans for the airport’s future.
In 2009 the Labour Government confirmed their support for a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow, should the airport’s owners put in a planning application. No application was made before the 2010 General Election, during which both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats campaigned on a platform to block any expansion of this sort at the airport.
Since the airport’s expansion plans were abandoned after the 2010 General Election, there has been speculation about what Heathrow can do to increase capacity on its existing site and to improve services. Alternating use of the runways and changes to regulatory policy may make some difference, and it is as yet unclear what the impact on Heathrow might be of the proposed HS2 rail line. The Coalition Government published its Aviation Policy Framework in March 2013 – this is largely a collection of technical changes that could be made to airports to increase capacity, improve efficiency and ensure that aviation growth in the UK is sustainable in terms of noise and environmental pollution.
The Airports Commission, under the chairmanship of Sir Howard Davies, was set up in September 2012 and tasked with making recommendations as to the timing and scale of any future airport capacity. It will not publish its final report and recommendations until after the 2015 General Election but in December 2013 it published an interim report shortlisting two options for expansion at Heathrow.
More detail on the proposed expansion of Heathrow up to February 2009 can be found in Library Research Paper 09/11: Expansion of Heathrow Airport. Information on the other airports in the South East and London can be found in HC Library Note SN2893; and there is a separate note on proposals for a Thames Estuary airport, SN6144.