Woldbye told the Airlines 2024 conference: “I think by the end of next year we will have taken the decision. I’m serious about getting the right decision, guided by national infrastructure and transportation strategy (more) than guided by what we want – we will survive without a third runway.”
He said there was “strong support” for the scheme from shareholders “with the right conditions”, but added government and airlines must back the choice: “If the UK does not want a runway, why would it be built? It is not for Heathrow to decide, we need to have final agreement all round saying this is the project we want.”
He said there was “positive momentum” at government level but the project needed airline support. “What supermarket puts products on the shelves nobody wants to buy?” he asked.
Woldbye joined Heathrow in October 2023 as chief executive, moving from Copenhagen airport and reviving the expansion debate following the pandemic. “It is a huge project and not easy. I think we do need this capacity, absolutely,” he said.
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."
