Battle plans set to take off over Heathrow skies

Some of the world's largest airlines are forming a powerful coalition to fight for the controversial development of a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow Airport.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and BMI, with the foreign airlines that use Heathrow, are setting up the campaign group, which will be launched at the end of next month.

It will get extra firepower through backing from the Confederation of British Industry, three trade unions and senior members of the Labour Party, said a well-placed source.

They will argue that Britain's economic growth would be constrained without the new runway.

Known as Future Heathrow, the group will have its own campaign offices, staff and a budget expected to run into the millions. But it will face opposition from the environmental lobby, including Hacan ClearSkies which has already taken the Government to the European Court of Human Rights over night flights. It is planning to set up Project Heathrow Watch to fight a third runway.

The main battleground for the rival groups will be the environmental impact of a third runway.

Britain's Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, has said the British Airports Authority can build the runway if it meets European Union rules on pollution levels. The airlines have been working on ways to limit future pollution levels.

But Hacan ClearSkies aims to prove that the runway would break EU rules. John Stewart, the group's chairman, accused the Department for Transport of "reworking the figures" to allow the third runway.

- INDEPENDENT