Airports commission recommends expanding Heathrow

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Airports Commission unanimously recommended the construction of a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday in a long-awaited report on how to best expand the country's aviation capacity.

"Heathrow offers the kind of long-haul connectivity flights to emerging markets which are very important to the future of the British economy and expanding it would allow Heathrow to offers more of those flights," Commission chair Howard Davies told the BBC.

The commission tried to mitigate those concerns by offering conditions, recommending a ban on all scheduled flights from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., having firm commitments in Parliament to have no fourth runway and a legally binding "noise envelope" to limit noise created by the airport.

"Heathrow will face the mother of all challenges to meet the conditions for a third runway set down by Davies, and key members of the Cabinet remain opposed to Heathrow expansion," said anti-expansion activist John Stewart.

Faced with these problems there is still no guarantee the government will back a third runway when it makes its final decision later this year.