Heathrow denies report that third runway has been scrapped

London's Heathrow Airport has denied a report by the Sunday Times that plans to add a third runway had been shelved.

"The speculation in today's Sunday Times is wrong, and Heathrow recognises neither the plans nor actions described," said a spokesperson for the airport.

The Sunday Times claimed that Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye was looking to scrap the expansion and had started to disband a team focussed on the project, citing unnamed sources.

Heathrow said it was looking at how it could best optimise the current airport to achieve short-term growth within its current infrastructure.

"Longer term, we're reviewing our plans to make sure the airport has the capacity the UK economy needs, while boosting the resilience of our operations for our customers and meeting our sustainability commitments," the statement said.

The longstanding push to build an additional runway at Heathrow has been halted by legal challenges from local residents and environmental campaigners, as well as being impacted heavily by the Covid-19 pandemic. Heathrow reported its first annual profit since 2019 just last week.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Shareccast.com