Battle for Heathrow's future ignited by businessman Surinder Arora

The National

6 days ago

An Indian-born businessman is going up against the Heathrow Airport to develop a third runaway and new terminals at the UK's main hub.
Plans submitted on Thursday would see Surinder Arora's £25bn plan go head to head with Heathrow's grander £33bn scheme to develop a longer runaway that goes under the M25 motorway.
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, welcomed the proposals as part of the government's plan to boost economic growth with large scale infrastructure projects.
To support the decade long plan the government is expected to announce an overhaul of the air traffic pathways to eliminate inefficiencies in stacking and flight path patterns.
Officials are reportedly ready to launch an Airspace Design Service to redraw corridors that allow the planes to queue for landing. The corridors were first outlined in the 1950s and there has been a more than 10 fold rise in traffic since that era.
Arora Group said its shorter runway length of 2.8km would deliver a 'primary benefit' of avoiding the costly and disruptive need to divert the M25 motorway. It would also challenge the existing operator by constructing and running a new modernised terminal, Terminal Six, located west of the existing Terminal Five.
"Our Heathrow West proposal, which directly meets and supports the United Kingdom's primary objective of unlocking economic growth at the UK's only hub airport, with a strong commitment of doing so on-budget and on-time," Mr Arora said. 'The Arora Group has a proven track record of delivering."
Heathrow Airport has countered with its own proposals and said its expansion would eventually amount to a £49bn investment plan that would see the runways, terminals and transport infrastructure undergoing an upgrade. 'We are uniquely placed to do this for the country," said chief executive Thomas Woldbye. "It is time to clear the way for take-off.'
Its plan promises to deliver an annual passenger footfall of 150m from 84m last year. It said its 3.5km runway would run to the northwest of the existing airport.
It said it would expand Terminal Five to two new arms to the west and north. It would also demolish terminals one and three and redesign three.
Ahead of an official review it offered to discuss with its airlines how a shorter runway would deliver the same benefits as its plan.
Arora has worked with leading engineer Bechtel for a cost estimate of under £25 billion and says its reduced land footprint will lessen disruption to local residents and businesses. Under its blueprint the new runway could be fully operational by 2035 and its new Terminal Six would open in two phases, in 2036 and 2040.
Heathrow has suggested that despite government promises of a revamped planning process, its rival would face judicial review and other time consuming legal hurdles. The government's ambition of securing planning consent by 2029 and a new runway being operational within a decade is a key factor in the bidding process.
Heathrow says there would be 276,000 new flights annually to boost the daily traffic to 756,000 aircraft. It has joined with airlines outside its current customer pool like easyJet to suggest new providers would operate from Heathrow for the first time.
It has also said it will try to match its connections to UK destinations to that at Amsterdam, which it currently lags by ratio of 23:13.
Other promises include a 50 per cent increase in cargo capacity plus 30 plus new daily flight routes to add to the 230 destinations to over 85 countries.