Heathrow Airport has said it has identified options that could save £2.5bn on the cost of its planned expansion, including not building a dedicated terminal for the new runway.
The airport says it could now deliver an expanded airport for £14bn without compromising on its local commitments or passenger experience. This is £2.5bn less than the plans submitted to the Airports Commission in 2015.
The new terminal could be axed
It added that its latest proposals, which will be released in detail as part of its public planning consultation in January, have been developed in close cooperation with the airlines and would ensure that airport charges stay ‘close to today’s levels’.
Emma Gilthorpe, Heathrow’s executive director, expansion, 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 £2.5bn 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.’
The options that would enable the cost reductions are
- 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 that ‘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
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