London’s Heathrow Airport plans to appeal a British court decision that has thrown its plans for a third runway into chaos and says it can still build the project “without jeopardizing the planet’s future”.
The Court of Appeals found that the third runway project was unlawful because it failed to take into account the UK’s climate commitments.
Plans to expand the slot-constrained airport to cope with increasing traffic have been debated for years and had been opposed by environmentalists and local residents.
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The appeal was backed by environmental groups and London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan who called on the expansion plans to be abandoned.
The decision prompted jubilation outside the court but the judges left the way open for the project to proceed provided it fits in with the UK’s environmental commitments.
The British government has decided not to appeal the decision, leaving it up to the airport to take it further.
“The court’s judgment is complex and requires careful consideration,’’ Transport secretary Grant Shapps said. “We will set out our next steps in due course,”
A Heathrow Airport spokesman noted the court had dismissed most of the appeals against the government, including those based noise and air quality, and the remaining issue was “eminently fixable”
“We will appeal to the Supreme Court on this one issue and are confident that we will be successful,’’ the spokesperson said.
“In the meantime, we are ready to work with the Government to fix the issue that the court has raised.
“Heathrow has taken a lead in getting the UK aviation sector to commit to a plan to get to Net Zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Accord.
Expanding Heathrow, Britain’s biggest port and only hub, is essential to achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of Global Britain.
“We will get it done the right way, without jeopardizing the planet’s future.”
UK MPs in 208 voted overwhelmingly in favor of the then £14 billion project as the airport ran close to capacity. It handled 80.1m passengers in 2018.
The new Heathrow runway would be the first new full-length runway to be built in the south-east of England since World War II and would allow the airport to boost its capacity to 130 million passengers and 740,000 flight movements per year.
The extra runway, to be parallel to the existing runways and to the north-west, is also needed to allow Heathrow to keep up with European rivals such as Amsterdam’s Schiphol, which has six runways.
However, its flight paths cross many residential districts and the project threatens to destroy historic villages dating back to medieval times.
