Howard Davies, the head of the UK Airports Commission, has said that the UK government must take a decision on building a new airport runway soon after the general election in 2015 in order to meet the growing demand and avoid capacity crunch.

He said that the capacity crunch in the country could cost as much as 45 billion pounds to the Births economy. The government had set up the advisory body, UK Airports Commission in 2012 to evaluate airport capacity in southern England. Heathrow management as told the government's aviation commission that a third runway is required at the airport in order to compete better with other aviation hubs in the European region. The expansion would see more support as London's mayor Boris Johnson appears to have shelved plans for an airport at Thames Estuary.

Heathrow, which is owned by Spanish conglomerate Ferrovial, is the busiest airport in Europe and about 70 million passengers use the airport each year. The airport was restricted from building a third runway when the coalition government came into power in 2010. However, the airport management believes that the Davies Commission might offer some support to the need for expansion considering the long term travel arrangement sin the UK.

The demand for a third runway will push the plans for a fourth runway back to 2040 but the management has said that there is an immediate need for a third runway and indicated that the it wan can much linger for a forth one if it needs another runway.