Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport, and is an important interconnector for global capital and trade, as a major airport at the centre of the world it brings in billions every year in layovers. However, due to its two runways, Heathrow is now at capacity and cannot accept any new flights. This means other airports such as Frankfurt (with four runways) and Istanbul (with five) are taking its potential business. Money is being left on the table the longer we leave Heathrow behind its major competitors.
Building a third runway will not in fact create more flights, it will simply shift flights that will already take place to British soil, bringing in money and growth that will help put more money in the pockets of working class people.
As well as this, the UK needs money to fund its ambitious net zero goals. Currently, years of stagnation have hurt tax revenue brought in by the government and harmed the ability of the government to fund their plans. The government has said that the runway may boost the economy by up to £100 billion by 2040, a huge boost which could be used to help fund brand new climate friendly initiatives like Rail expansion and carbon capture efforts, both of which are keynote policies of the new government but need heavy investment in order to be plausible. A third runway is in this sense, a carbon negative investment, which can provide important revenue in our fight against climate change.
Overall, it’s good to see that the government is willing to fight for positive growth after watching 14 years of Tory dithering which has wrecked the British economy. The new runway will be good for our climate and our economy, and although the fight to get it built is likely to be tough, it’s one that's worth it in the long term.