Third Runway No Go at Heathrow

June 26th, 2011 | Travel News

By Andrew Gibson

British Airways have now given up hope of getting a third runway built at Heathrow Airport. The Chief Executive of the International Airlines Group, who are the parent company of BA, said that they would now change focus. Willie Walsh went on to say that they would be focusing on expanding places like Madrid instead.

British Airways was very keen to get Heathrow to expand but since the UK coalition government have announced that expansion plans have been halted, they have abandoned their plan. There were many campaigners who were against the expansion plans and they have been celebrating this decision which they feel is a victory for them.

Having announced in The Times Newspaper that he felt that a third runway would now never be built at Heathrow, he went on to say that because of the overcrowding in London, many airlines were already looking elsewhere and that he would now be doing the same thing. He said that London could have grown in the way that Dubai has but because of this restriction, he will now be looking for growth in areas outside of the UK.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said that he felt it was a serious matter that British Airways needed to go abroad to expand. He is backing a new airport build at the Thames Estuary, which would be very big. He said that Heathrow has been close to capacity for a long time and that they were always struggling to fit in more than they could actually manage.