LONDON’S Heathrow airport is shelving plans to add a third runway and will examine other options to handle more passengers, The Sunday Times reported. 

Chief executive officer Thomas Woldbye has begun the processing of disbanding a team focused on the project, the newspaper said, citing sources.  

The airport, which saw passenger numbers rise about 29 per cent to 79.2 million last year, will review proposals including extending the use of buses to deliver travellers to aircraft and other measures to boost runway efficiency, according to the report.

In an e-mailed statement, Heathrow Airport Holdings said it is “looking at how we can optimise the current airport to achieve short-term growth within our current infrastructure. Longer term, we’re reviewing our plans to make sure the airport has the capacity the UK economy needs, while boosting the resilience of our operations for our customers and meeting our sustainability commitments.” 

The longstanding push to develop an additional runway at Heathrow has been snarled by legal challenges by groups including local residents and environmental campaigners, as well as by the impact of the pandemic. Heathrow last week reported its first annual profit since 2019.

Heathrow is focusing on short-term measures to expand as well as studying longer term projects such as the new runway, Woldbye said on Wednesday (Feb 21) in an interview.

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Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co is considering buying into Heathrow and would join Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Qatar Investment Authority as major shareholders, people familiar with the matter said last week. BLOOMBERG