A marketing campaign group for a 3rd runway at Heathrow that will get funding from the airport has been distributing “incredibly misleading” data to households in west London, in keeping with opponents of the growth.
The group, known as Again Heathrow, despatched leaflets to folks residing close to the airport, claiming growth might be the path to a “greener” airport and suggesting it will imply solely the “cleanest and quietest aircraft” fly there.
It comes because the airport prepares to submit its planning utility for a 3rd runway forward of the 31 July deadline, following the federal government’s assertion of help for the growth.
Picture:A airplane lands over homes close to Heathrow Airport. Pic: PA
Its web site additionally doesn’t point out the present monetary help and says it “initially launched with funding from Heathrow Airport but we have since grown”.
On the backside of each internet web page, the organisation says: “Back Heathrow is a group of residents, businesses and community groups who have come together to defend the jobs that rely on Heathrow and to campaign for its secure future.”
Heathrow Airport mentioned it had all the time been clear about funding Again Heathrow, however wouldn’t disclose how a lot it offers.
Picture:Parmjit Dhanda in 2009 on the hustings to be Speaker of the Home of Commons. Pic: Reuters
Who’s behind Again Heathrow?
The group’s government director is former Labour minister Parmjit Dhanda, who was MP for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010 and sits on the Nationwide Coverage Discussion board – the physique answerable for growing Labour coverage.
Newest accounts for Again Heathrow present it had 5 workers, together with its two administrators, within the monetary yr ending 30 June 2024. The second director is John Braggins, a former marketing campaign adviser to Tony Blair.
The enterprise had £243,961 in money, the accounts present.
What are the group saying?
“We can build a cleaner, greener and smarter airport – using more sustainable aviation fuel, ensuring only the cleanest and quietest aircraft fly here, reduce stacking in our skies and modernise our airspace to cut emissions in flight,” he wrote.
“The scheme helps to see what areas certain airlines are excelling in and where improvements can be made,” a spokesperson mentioned.
However these “cleaner and greener” claims had been dismissed as “myths” by one campaigner.
Picture:Again Heathrow’s spring 2025 publication
Finlay Asher is an aerospace engineer and co-founder of Protected Touchdown, a bunch of aviation employees and fanatics searching for local weather enhancements within the business.
He mentioned the emissions financial savings from sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) had been “highly debatable” – however added that even when they had been taken at face worth, use of those fuels is “relatively low” and so solely offers small emissions reductions.
“Air traffic growth at Heathrow will wipe this out,” he mentioned.
Mr Asher additionally disputed the declare that solely the cleanest and quietest plane will fly at Heathrow. “There is no policy in place which prevents older generation aircraft from being operated out of any airport,” he mentioned.
As for decreasing “stacking” – the place plane wait over an airport to land – Mr Asher mentioned if that’s the aim, “adding more aircraft to the sky won’t make this easier”.
Opposition to Again Heathrow’s claims additionally got here from Rob Barnstone, founding father of the No Third Runway Coalition, which is funded by 5 native authorities surrounding Heathrow Airport.
He mentioned that no matter gasoline efficiencies or new quieter engines, having the extra 260,000 flights Heathrow has mentioned shall be created with an additional runway – along with the airport’s present cap of 480,000 – would create “an awful lot of noise”.
“For all the best will in the world, Heathrow is a very, very, very noisy neighbour… When you’re adding a quarter of a million additional flights, that’s going to create an awful lot of emissions, even if they’re using planes that are ever so slightly less environmentally damaging than previous planes,” Mr Barnstone mentioned.
Inexperienced claims
Underneath the heading of “UK sustainable fuel industry for Heathrow”, Again Heathrow mentioned “advances in electric and hydrogen powered aircraft can ensure we meet our environmental targets”.
The assertion was known as “incredibly misleading” by Dr Alex Chapman, senior economist on the left-leaning suppose tank New Economics Basis (NEF).
“There’s just absolutely no confidence that those aircraft are going to have any meaningful impact on emissions and commercial aviation in any reasonable time frame. And, yeah, we can all speculate as to what may not happen in 50 years’ time. But I think the people living around the airport should be given the information about what’s actually realistic.”
Even when the know-how had been obtainable, the runway will not be prepared for it, Dr Chapman mentioned.
“Perhaps more importantly, there’s been no indication so far that the proposed new runway is being built to cater for those types of aircraft, because a runway that caters to electrical, hydrogen powered aircraft would be very different to one that was for conventional fuel, particularly in terms of the fuelling infrastructure around it that would be required: pipes to pipe hydrogen, massive charging power facilities.”
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7:16Heathrow CEO on growth plans
Whereas work is underneath method to develop electrical plane, there are presently no business electrical flights happening. The most effective-case situation is battery-powered flights which may be appropriate for brief journeys.
However as a serious worldwide airport, greater than 40% of Heathrow’s flights are long-haul and medium-haul.
And whereas airways equivalent to easyJet have known as for presidency funding to develop hydrogen flying appropriate for short-haul flights, there are obstacles to creating common business flights a actuality.
Offering sufficient hydrogen for the airplane journeys from renewable sources shall be difficult, as will transporting the gasoline, and remodeling airport infrastructure for hydrogen refuelling.
Plans for hydrogen plane are at the very least a decade away, with Airbus saying it desires to get a 100-seat hydrogen airplane within the air by 2035 – though Again Heathrow’s estimates for a 3rd runway have flights taking off in 2034.
For now, rising emissions from flying are risking the UK’s local weather targets, in keeping with the impartial authorities advisers of the Local weather Change Committee, who discovered flights contribute extra greenhouse gasoline than your complete electrical energy provide sector.
Picture:Again Heathrow’s spring 2025 publication
Increasing at ‘full capacity’
Regardless of its 98% capability, Heathrow Airport has damaged passenger quantity data yearly for the previous 14 years – excluding the pandemic years of 2020 to 2023.
Dr Chapman mentioned Heathrow is at capability relating to the government-imposed flight cap, not on the capability of the present runway infrastructure.
“So if the government were, for example, to lift that cap on the number of aircraft movements, it’s pretty likely that they could actually fly 10% to 20% more flights out of the existing infrastructure,” he mentioned.
As aeroplanes have expanded to hold extra passengers, the airport has welcomed extra folks, he added.
The airport earlier this month introduced plans to extend its capability by 10 million passengers a yr, earlier than a 3rd runway is constructed, and to boost the cost paid by passengers to fund the funding.
How have the group and the airport responded?
A Heathrow spokesperson mentioned: “Again Heathrow represents tens of 1000’s of native individuals who need to make their views recognized on the significance of Heathrow to their communities and livelihoods at present and into the long run.
“We have always been clear that, alongside individual residents, local business groups and trade unions, we provide funding for Back Heathrow to provide a voice for local people who historically have not been heard in the debate about expanding Heathrow.”
Talking for the marketing campaign group, Mr Dhanda mentioned: “At Again Heathrow we’re pleased with our hyperlink to Heathrow Airport (the clue is within the title).
“We have always been open about the fact that we receive support from the airport and that they helped set the organisation up to balance the debate about expansion at a time when the voices of ordinary working people from the diverse communities around Heathrow were not being heard.”
“Back Heathrow also receives support from trade unions, local businesses and residents from amongst the 100,000 registered supporters it now has,” he added.
“We want an end to the dither and delay. Back Heathrow supporters want to see economic growth and the thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships a new runway will create.”
