Heathrow’s bosses are understood to have told the government the third runway cannot meet the 2035 deadline and is now due in 2039. The airport is targeting planning permission by 2029, but the Transport Department says no application is currently live.
The 2035 target was set by then-chancellor Rachel Reeves in January 2025, when the government backed the project as a growth measure and said it would create 100,000 jobs. Heathrow says expansion would be 100% privately financed and estimates at least 108,000 jobs and billions in supply-chain investment.
Heathrow says the runway would open within a decade of planning permission; its bosses believe faster delivery may require further regulatory changes beyond reforms already made to planning law. The Department for Transport called the timeline ambitious and said it would work with Heathrow and other stakeholders on a framework for considering an application, but declined to discuss ongoing consultations.
