Heathrow Reimagined:
A Better Hub for Britain
- Heathrow is the world's most expensive airport, yet passengers' experience continues to decline.
- It is the UK's only hub airport, and it is becoming less competitive, not more.
- Heathrow’s regulatory model needs fundamental reform.
- British consumers deserve a world-class hub airport.
- The time has come to reimagine Heathrow.
The Heathrow Reimagined campaign is calling for urgent and fundamental reform of Heathrow’s regulatory model, and welcomes the CAA’s decision to launch a review that can deliver this.
- 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.
- This problem stems from a regulatory system that rewards inefficiency and incentivises Heathrow's management to overspend because they earn higher guaranteed returns – in the form of passenger charges - on every pound of capital. In other words, the more they spend the more they make, regardless of the actual outcomes for the airport, airlines and increased charges ultimately passed onto passengers.
- We are supportive of expansion of Heathrow, but under the current regulatory model, the Government is effectively writing a blank cheque paid for by passengers and airlines.
- We welcome the CAA launching a fundamental review of Heathrow’s regulatory framework following our campaign. This is real progress. However, the review must deliver meaningful reform and ensure that expansion does not come at any cost.
Why is it time for fundamental reform 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 Heathrow’s monopoly position has harmed consumers, led to squandered spending and diminished Heathrow’s hub status and competitiveness.
For example:
- The refurbishment of tunnels under the runways is running over 10 years late and costs are already approaching almost £0.5 billion over the original budget.
- The ongoing replacement of the outdated baggage handling system at Terminal 2 is escalating towards £1 billion in costs.
- Heathrow paid £74,000 to cut down three trees, approximately 20 times the average cost.
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.
A Better Hub for Britain
We believe that Heathrow can be reimagined to contribute 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 handling 26% of the UK’s total exports by value.
At a time when the Government wants infrastructure investment to drive productivity
and growth, Heathrow's declining performance undermines this objective.
For Britain to grow and remain competitive, Heathrow must be an attractive and efficient option for 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 fundamental reform.
Why call for Heathrow to change now?
We welcome the CAA launching a fundamental review of Heathrow’s regulatory framework, but the review must deliver meaningful change that addresses today’s problems, ensuring expansion can be a success.
The need to act is urgent and unavoidable.
We support expansion of Heathrow, but the Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) proposal will be prohibitively expensive under this regulatory model. If Heathrow is to build a third runway, it cannot continue to gold-plate its construction costs and spend inefficiently.
Without reform, prices will continue to rise for consumers and businesses for decades to come and Heathrow’s hub status and competitiveness will continue to decline. The number of connecting passengers at Heathrow has already fallen by around 2 million passengers since 2018.
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.
Reform is achievable and compatible with the Government’s expansion timeline, and can lay the foundations for a successful expansion of Heathrow.
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
In January 2025, the Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee (AOC), Arora Group, International Airlines Group (IAG), and Virgin Atlantic joined forces to launch Heathrow Reimagined: A Better Hub for Britain.
The campaign calls for fundamental reform of Heathrow’s regulatory framework by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Government, starting with 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.
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”.
