Heathrow Airport will be allowed to charge airlines more for its services to recover money spent on the early stages of its third runway project.
The aviation regulator is permitting the airport to claw back up to £320m through higher airport charges to airlines for each passenger. This is likely to end up adding 15p to ticket prices in 2028, rising to 30p in later years.
A bidder which unsuccessfully put forward a rival design involving a shorter runway, Arora Group’s Heathrow West, will also be allowed to recover £4.1m pounds in costs.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Heathrow said safeguards would be put in place to protect consumers from unjustified costs.
The CAA had already proposed that Heathrow’s airline fees are capped at between £27.20 and £30.50 per passenger for 2027-2031.
At this stage, the costs being recovered are only for the early planning and design of the runway during 2025 and 2026.
How much the cost of actually building the runway will add to ticket prices won’t be clear for some time.
Tim Johnson, the CAA’s director of consumers and markets, told the BBC: “We’ve announced that the first tranche of costs, which is to help with the planning of this, can be recovered from passengers. That’s up to a maximum of £320m.”
Heathrow airport will also be able to collect Heathrow West’s costs up to November last year by adding to its airport charges.
The CAA said allowing these costs to be recouped will result in the maximum airport charge per passenger increasing by around 15 pence in 2028, rising to an estimated 30 pence in the following years.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said any extra costs passed onto customers were “unwelcome” when many people were struggling with the price of travel.
“These increases may seem small, but they are being added to what are already some of the highest airport charges in the world,” he said.
“Heathrow has little competition on many routes, leaving travellers with few alternatives if charges continue to rise,” he added.
A Heathrow spokesperson said a third runway will make “travel more affordable and giving passengers more choice, while providing a real economic boost to every region and nation of the country.”
“We are carefully considering the CAA proposals and will make investment decisions accordingly,” the spokesperson added.
In November, the government announced it preferred the £33bn scheme put forward by the airport over Arora’s alternative plan.
At the time, the Department for Transport said Heathrow’s own proposal offered the most deliverable option, and the “greatest likelihood” of getting a decision on planning approval within this parliament.
The CAA’s director of consumers and markets, Tim Johnson, said today’s decision “strikes a balance between supporting the delivery of benefits to consumers through timely progress on Heathrow expansion, whilst also protecting them from undue increases in costs”.
The regulator said “safeguards” designed to monitor cost efficiency would include transparency and cost reporting requirements, and assurance by independent experts.
Airlines often complain that Heathrow is the world’s most most expensive hub airport, and have repeatedly voiced concern that the airport’s expansion plans will make it pricier.
The government hopes for a planning decision by 2029.
Plans for a third runway stretch back decades, with the government backing the plans in 2003.
However, the idea has also long faced opposition from climate campaigners, many local residents, and several politicians.
They worry an additional runway will increase air pollution, noise pollution, and breach the government’s legally binding climate commitments.
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