Overseas investment is in danger as the UK government delays runway addition at London’s Heathrow

The UK Freight Transport Association (FTA) has issued a warning that if the British government delays the addition of third runway at Heathrow Airport, it will do irreparable harm to the overseas investment that UK seeks.

The government has announced this week that the decision will be delayed until mid-2016. The FTA has shown real concerns over this and has said that their capacity to deliver cargo to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries of the world will face some real difficulties and ultimately cause irreparable harm.

In a prepared statement, FTA’s director of global and European policy, Chris Welsh said: “Yet another delay in a decision on future investment in airport capacity is damaging the UK international competitiveness. The foreign investors are likely to question the The UK capacity to invest in vital infrastructure required to maintain and enhance the The UK connectivity.”

Heathrow was declared the best option for airport expansion in the southeast of Great Britain, cited Welsh from the July 2015 Davies Commission report. It has also been found in a study that about a 40 per cent of the The UK exports and imports are being carried out by the airfreight transport.

Heathrow is already operating at 98 per cent capacity, serving 191 destinations worldwide and moving 1.5 million tonnes of air freight to Pakistan and rest of the destination per year. A study was conducted by York Aviation about the economic importance of Heathrow in 2014, describing why it is of grave importance to carry out that third runway expansion to meet the cargo demands of the world.

The World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development consider intervention on behalf of governments, the FTA statement noted, regarding infrastructure investment being “essential in attaining good connectivity and efficient logistics.”

To cut processing times in half and double the existing cargo capacity, Heathrow announced in November its plans to invest $273 million to upgrade its cargo facilities. And in order for Heathrow to remain competitive with other European air hubs and meet all those goals is to add a third runaway as soon as possible, added Welsh.