Heathrow airport says third runway will more than double routes to UK cities

Heathrow's boss has fought back against recent criticism of the third runway, saying the £18.6 billion project will "more than double" the number of domestic routes it operates.

John Holland-Kaye was addressing claims in research by Transport for London, which set the number of UK routes will fall from seven to four by 2030.

The analysis led London mayor Boris Johnson to declare the expansion a " catastrophic red herring".

Ministers’ decision on whether to approve the Airports Commission’s recommendation of expanding the west London airport is due by the end of the year, but its rival Gatwick is pushing hard to be reconsidered.

Gatwick announced its busiest ever September, with 4 million passengers travelling through the airport, prompting its chief executive Stewart Wingate to again declare that a second runway in West Sussex would be “delivered faster, with a fraction of the environmental impact”.

But Heathrow expansion could boost the wider UK economy by £211 billion – partly predicated on better links to other parts of the UK.

Heathrow executives have previously warned that without expansion their domestic destinations could be slashed to two, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The other existing domestic routes reach Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Belfast International and Newcastle airports.

Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles de Gaulle serve many more British destinations.

EasyJet has said expansion could allow it to start routes from Heathrow to Inverness, Isle of Man, and Jersey.