Pilots call for Heathrow to have third runway and sixth terminal

The British AirLine Pilots Association said another terminal was vital for handling the growing number of passengers using the airport.

Heathrow's new Terminal 5 opens at the end of this month.

The association's demand - made in a submission to the Government on the future of Heathrow - will add to the controversy over expansion plans, which led to last week's highprofile demonstrations at the airport and on the roof of Parliament. The association called for the proposed third runway to be 2,500 metres.

That is 500 metres longer than the one suggested in the Government's White Paper on the future of air transport in 2003 but the same distance used in its recent consultation on Heathrow expansion.

The association said: "If the UK is going to be able to catch up with its European neighbours and maintain a competitive airline industry, then runway-expansion in the South-East is imperative, particularly at the premier airport, London Heathrow.

"With only two runways at Heathrow, we are behind Paris with four and Amsterdam with five."

The pilots said a longer third runway would provide for a greater variety of aircraft types and increase the airport's flexibility.

"Once the third runway is complete and the associated infrastructure put in place, it will be too late to consider extending the runway retrospectively so this must be addressed at the outset,"-the submission said. On the need for a sixth terminal, the association said "ducking the issue now will only cause headache later as we have seen so often in large UK infrastructure projects".

It said the Government needed to develop the UK's capacity to handle more air traffic with, for example, development at Stansted.

The pilots believed that growth could take place "while meeting the strict environmental standards demanded".

The submission said the association took the environmental impact of civil aviation very seriously.

However, it was "frustrated by lobbyists and some politicians who use aviation as a scapegoat rather than looking at other causes of carbon dioxide emissions".

The association said it had "long supported a worldwide emissions trading system" and pointed to "the work pilots are doing as professional aviators to reduce emissions". It added: "Pilots are increasingly flying continuous descent approaches instead of the noisy and inefficient stepped approach.

"Pilots are using their professional skills in a number of other ways to minimise fuel consumption, cut emissions and reduce noise."

The Government's 14-week consultation period ended last week.

It is understood that the level of opposition to the proposals - 18,000 people lodged objections - has taken ministers, who were thought to have been initially in favour of the plans, by surprise.

The Department for Transport has decided not to publish the submissions in advance of its final decision, to be made in summer.