Heathrow is planning to cut up to £3bn from its plans for a third runway as part of a last-minute attempt to win Theresa May’s backing for airport expansion.
The Times reported that the airport is preparing to shave almost a fifth off the project budget and accelerate the building process by 12 months to deliver more flights “quicker and cheaper”.
Revised plans include potentially scrapping proposals to tunnel the M25 under the new runway, axing a transit system to carry passengers around the airport in favour of buses and constructing smaller terminal buildings.
Lord Deighton, the airport’s new chairman, said the measures would speed up the construction process, opening the runway by late 2024, while keeping costs down for passengers.
He insisted that landing charges could effectively be frozen in real terms under the plan, countering claims by airlines that fees could double with the building of a third runway.
The move, to be announced at the end of the month, is being seen as an ambitious attempt to swing momentum behind Heathrow over Gatwick, which has also been promising to reduce costs of delivering a new runway.
The third runway, to be built to the northwest of the existing airport, is projected to cost about £16.8bn, opening by late 2025.
Lord Deighton, a Conservative peer, who was commercial secretary to the Treasury for two years under George Osborne, said the airport was looking to reduce the budget by between “two and three billion”.
In a significant change, the airport is considering scrapping plans to place a 14-lane section of the M25 into a 600-metre tunnel under the new runway.
He said the current tunnelling proposal was “quite expensive and takes some time, so we are looking at other ways of getting to that solution”, including diverting it around the airport or possibly even some form of bridge.
A £1bn rail transit system could also be scrapped.
The Airports Commission chaired by Howard Davies recommended Heathrow be given the go-ahead for expansion but since the report in July 2015, the government has constantly delayed the decision.
