Europe's busiest airport to get a lot busier

LONDON - After the longest planning inquiry in British history, the Government finally gave the go-ahead yesterday for the construction of a fifth terminal at Heathrow Airport, amid condemnation from environmentalists and acclaim from business leaders.

Employers said the decision to build the £2.5bn ($8.6bn) facility in West London was welcome news for the economy, but environmentalist groups declared that safeguards announced by Transport Secretary Stephen Byers did not "amount to a row of beans".

Byers said in the Commons that the number of flights at Heathrow would be limited to 480,000, compared with 460,000 last year.

New restrictions on noise would be imposed, extending existing 57-decibel limits. Consultation on new restrictions on night noise would be held by 2003.

Byers, who also refused to rule out a third runway at Heathrow, told MPs: "Giving the go-ahead for a fifth terminal at Heathrow is essential if we are to maintain Heathrow as one of the world's leading airports and bring benefits to the British economy both locally and nationally."

Paul de Zylva of Friends of the Earth said Government support for Terminal 5 had been known for years. "Although this has been the worst-kept secret in British politics, we are still deeply angry," he said. "Millions of people will soon find their lives blighted by this monstrous new airport. The conditions announced don't add up to a row of beans. The only winners today are the massive corporations of BAA [British Airports Authority] and British Airways."

Mike Hodgkinson, chief executive of BAA, which lodged the planning application in February 1993, said the decision was good news for everybody, including the local community, "which has won sensible safeguards".

British Airways, which will be the "prime occupier" of the new terminal, welcomed the decision, but its chief executive, Rod Eddington, said the airline needed time to examine the conditions before commenting further. "What is abundantly clear is that the Government has refused to be deflected by the short-term problems of world aviation," he said.

Business groups had argued that the terminal needed to be built. Heathrow is the fourth-largest airport in the world, handling 64.6 million passengers compared with 80.2 million at Atlanta, 72.1 million at Chicago and 68.5 million at Los Angeles. The West London airport, however, handles more international traffic than any other and is comfortably the busiest in Europe.

But employer groups believe that its pre-eminence is being challenged by Continental airports such as Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam.

Critics have argued that the terminal would have a negative effect on the environment, that the economic arguments in its favour were overstated and that the September 11 attacks are likely to have a long-term effect on the industry.

The decision to proceed with Terminal 5 is not the end of the story. Next year, a series of reports will be published on airport capacity throughout Britain, with significant increases proposed for the Southeast of England.

- INDEPENDENT