The Heathrow saga: What the papers are saying

Heathrow’s third runway has won the backing of the Government but the long-running saga over the airport’s expansion rumbles on. Zac Goldsmith has quit in protest and Boris Johnson said the plans are ‘undeliverable’. So will the scheme ever see the light of day?

Hopefully not, says The Times in its editorial, which suggests Boris’s view about the likelihood of planes taking off from a third runway is ‘probably right’. The paper says the need for airport expansion in the south east is clear and that ‘a decision of sorts is better than none at all’. But it says that Heathrow isn’t the place for it. The Times says expanding Heathrow ‘is the wrong decision, and history will not thank (the PM) for it’. Its damning editorial suggests Theresa May ‘surrendered too quickly to the business lobbyists’ and that she should have opted for Gatwick – where the possibility of further expansion is much more feasible – rather than sticking with the Heathrow plan.