Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to put forward a proposal to expand Heathrow Airport – but the plan could come at a huge cost to Brits wanting to fly abroad
Rachel Reeves’ pitch to enlarge Heathrow could slap an extra £40 onto your flight fare, it has been reported.
A Treasury analysis has revealed that her carbon-cutting campaign for a beefed-up Heathrow, as relying on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) to keep resulting emissions rises down might get pricey, potentially pushing up the cost of a single economy ticket by a hefty £37.80 by 2040.
The Chancellor’s eco-conscious strategy could mean higher prices for all passengers, with travellers in first or business class not shouldering a bigger share of the pain. As per the Government’s analysts, 75 per cent of the SAF costs would be shifted onto flyers’ bills, the Guardian reports.
The report noted that plane tickets are currently priced too low to properly promote planet-sparing choices like SAF. The analysis reads: “Ticket prices do not reflect the full social cost of flying and are not sufficiently incentivising the uptake of decarbonisation solutions such as SAF.”
Next week, Ms Reeves is tipped to publically push Heathrow’s third runway and support expansions at Gatwick and Luton. But Reeves’ sky-high ambition is set to cause controversy amongst green campaigners and some big Labour names, including London’s Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, both known to not support plans of Heathrow’s extra runway.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chancellor was put on the spot over whether Heathrow’s expansion could cause issues with figures like Sir Sadiq and Mr Miliband. She remarked: “This was the problem with the last Government – that there was always somebody that said: ‘Oh yes, of course we want to grow the economy but we don’t like that investment, we don’t like that wind farm, we don’t like those pylons, we don’t like that airport, we don’t want that housing near us.'”
However, she insisted growth is now a priority, saying: “But the answer can’t always be ‘no’ and that’s been the problem in Britain for a long time, that when there was a choice between something that would grow the economy and anything else, anything else always won.
“Now, of course, there are other things that matter, but when we say that growth is the number-one mission of this Government, we mean it, and that means it trumps other things. And so we’re making pro-growth decisions in the national interest.”
Meanwhile, at Prime Ministers’ Questions yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer dodged queries on the rumoured Heathrow projects, instead telling MPs: “As a Government, we are committed to growth, we are committed to the aviation sector, and to our climate obligations.”
EasyJet boss Kenton Jarvis lauded the Chancellor’s decision – expected to be made formally next week. He said: “We welcome the decisive action by the Government to grow the economy. We’ve always said that aviation, the industry, is an enabler of economic growth.”