The owner of London’s Heathrow airport will delay construction on its third runway program to reduce preparatory construction costs, which would be lost should the $18.2-billion project fail to take off. The decision follows the Civil Aviation Authority’s determination that the company should reduce its financial risk on the project by around $1 billion to safeguard passenger interests.
“We now expect to complete the third runway between early 2028 and late 2029,” according to owner Heathrow Airport Ltd. The company aims to raise up to $2.6 billion of private investment for the project over the next two years “at no cost to the taxpayer.”