Airline Chiefs Speak Out Against Tory Policy on Third Runway for Heathrow

Airline bosses derided Conservative aviation policy as incoherent and confused due to the party’s opposition to a third runway at Heathrow.
The chief executives of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic launched their salvos as leading climate change advisers published a report showing that expansion could be compatible with the Government’s carbon emission’s target.
Whillie Walsh, BA’s chief executive said: “I think they are confused. I would like to know what the Conservative policy is going to be. I think we expect governments to have policies that are coherent; I don’t see this as a coherent policy. Their environmental credentials have been seriously undermined… if it’s an environmental issue, they should be saying no runways anywhere. They are not.”
Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said: “I think it is wrong in terms of what this country needs going forward and I think there is a job to do now to persuade them that this is the right thing to do. Somehow we have got to find a way to convince them.”
The Conservative Party is against a third runway at Heathrow—which lies within earshot of key marginal seats—due to the increased pollution and its belief that a strong business case has not yet been made. It opposes second runways at Stansted and Gatwick but says that individual regional airport could expand where there is local support.
Theresa Villiers, Shadow Transport Secretary, hit back at criticism of that policy. “People will have a clear choice at the general election. If they vote Conservative, there will be no third runway at Heathrow. We are absolutely convinced that the environmental costs of runway three, in terms of air pollution, noise and carbon emissions, significantly outweigh the alleged economic benefits,” she said. “The economic case for a third runway simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. We are part of a widening coalition of business leaders, local authorities, charities, environmentalists and community groups who realize that Heathrow should be better, not bigger.”
Colin Matthews, the chief executive of BAA, which owns Heathrow, Stansted, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton airports, adopted a more conciliatory tone: “We respect today’s government position. We would respect any government position in the future.”
The Committee on Climate Change, a body established to advise the Government, said that the number of passengers could increase by 60% by 2050 without breaching a government pledge to reduce aviation emissions below 2005 levels.
David Kennedy, the committee’s chief executive, said that a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow by 2020 need not jeopardize that target.