Heathrow boss: airport expansion decision to be made 'next year'

Construction would take at least a decade “no matter how fast we progress”. In the meantime, Heathrow, currently operating at almost 84 million passengers, could be stretched to 90 million with better utilisation of aircraft stands and other efficiencies.

“We are unlikely to create more movements on the runway but everything else we can do,” Woldbye said. This included building onto Terminal 2 and 5 and making baggage system improvements. Despite this, capacity would probably stretch to no more than 95 million passengers without the additional runway, he added.

He claimed a third runway was “not going to move the dial much” in terms of sustainability when countries like China were building many more airports. Future demand had to be catered for, he said: “The world wants to travel; many that want to have not travelled yet. I don’t think we can stop that tsunami.”

It comes as Virgin Atlantic appeared to backtrack on ruling out a return to the UK’s second major airport – Gatwick – at the same conference. 

Previously, the airline’s chief executive Shai Weiss has said there would no return to Gatwick after Virgin quit the West Sussex airport during the pandemic. 

However, at the Airlines UK conference in London on Monday (25 November), Weiss said: "Gatwick is our historic home. It’s where our office is. We’d love to go back when the time is right, and the opportunity is right."