Heathrow Reimagined:
A Better Hub for Britain
- Heathrow is Britain's only hub airport but it's the most expensive aiport in the world.
- Heathrow's regulatory model needs urgent review.
- British consumers deserve a world class hub airport.
- The time has come to reimagine Heathrow.
The Heathrow Reimagined campaign is calling on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to conduct a fundamental review into Heathrow’s regulatory model.
- As Britain’s only hub airport, Heathrow is our primary international gateway and the first point of entry for millions of visitors each year. It should be a source of national pride and offer an exceptional experience for passengers, but today it is the most expensive airport in the world, with a service that falls well short.
- Our collective call to the regulator and wider industry is borne out of the spiralling costs at the airport, which are currently being shouldered by customers and airlines alike, as well as Heathrow’s declining passenger experience and ageing infrastructure.
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Coupled with expansion plans that will see passenger charges rise again, Heathrow Reimagined calls on the CAA to investigate what has gone wrong and to address the root causes before passengers and airlines are locked into higher charges for decades to come.
Why is it time for a fundamental review of Heathrow?
In the 15 years since the last detailed review by the Competition Commission, Heathrow has become the world’s most expensive airport and has failed to modernise at the same pace as its peers – a clear sign of a failure of the regulatory system.
Record-breaking passenger numbers, an airport at near-full capacity and the prospect of a third runway all mask the fundamental problem with Heathrow.
For too long, the regulatory model’s failure to constrain the monopoly has harmed consumers, led to squandered spending and diminished Heathrow’s hub status and competitiveness.
To ensure future investment offers value for money, there must be wholesale reform, which is necessary and achievable without delaying spades in the ground for expansion.
Why is Heathrow the most expensive airport in the world?
Heathrow’s current regulatory model actively encourages inefficient overspend and leads to the highest charges in the world, leaving passengers paying more for less.
This incentive to spend inefficiently has resulted in more than £15 billion of capital expenditure in the last two decades, which has led charges to doubling in real terms.
Heathrow’s price hiking meant that in 2024, passengers and airlines paid £1.1 billion more than if Heathrow’s charges were in line with other major European airports.
In return, passengers get a declining experience and ageing infrastructure. Heathrow has dropped out of the Skytrax list of top 20 international airports for passenger experience, while surveys have labelled the airport the “most stressful in Europe”.
A Better Hub for Britain
We believe that Heathrow can be reimagined to achieve much more for Britain – that with reform it can once again become a source of national pride and better serve the 84 million passengers who use it each year.
Britain’s economy, in desperate need of growth, deserves an efficient and welcoming way in, and the millions of passengers who travel to see friends, family and on important business each year deserve better.
As Britain’s only hub airport and critical national infrastructure, Heathrow is a crucial enabler of the government’s growth mission and UK economic prosperity, supporting 133,000 jobs, delivering 76% of Britain’s long-haul connectivity and processing 70% of its air cargo by value.
For Britain to grow and remain competitive, Heathrow must be an attractive and efficient option for those connecting passengers.
We want to promote and connect Britain on the world stage and encourage sustainable growth. But while we are united in our ambition for growth, we cannot support major future spending without wholesale reform.
Why call for Heathrow to change now?
The need to act is urgent and unavoidable. It is critical that a fundamental review is completed before unprecedented levels of inefficient and ineffective spending are carried out – either under current plans or through plans for a third runway. If Heathrow is to expand and build a third runway, it cannot continue to gold-plate its construction costs and spend inefficiently.
Without a review, prices will continue to rise for consumers and businesses for decades to come and Heathrow’s hub status and competitiveness will continue to dwindle.
Action now would turn this around and pave the way for a hub airport in which Britain could take pride, while a failure to act would be a missed opportunity for Britain on an international scale.
A fundamental review which examines the approaches taken by other major international airports is the first step towards a reimagined Heathrow that delivers for consumers, the government’s growth agenda and the country.
The time to act is now.
About Heathrow Reimagined
The Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee (AOC), Arora Group, International Airlines Group (IAG), and Virgin Atlantic have come together to launch Heathrow Reimagined: A Better Hub for Britain.
The campaign calls on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to conduct an urgent and fundamental review into the way in which Heathrow, the UK’s only hub airport and the largest in Europe is regulated, for the benefit of consumers, businesses, and the UK economy.
