London Heathrow Airport has huge plans for improving its transport systems – from a third runway to creating two mega carparks.
The aviation hub, which is the largest in the UK, proposed a £2.6 billion budget to deliver multiple parking spaces and improvements across the airport.
It intends to combine 20 existing car parks into two multi-storey spaces that can hold up to 36,000 vehicles.
Heathrow told The Times the new car parks would take up a whopping £1.3 billion of the budget.
This would equate to a cost of around £36,000 per space.
Leaked documents seen by the publication reveal they would be called the northern and southern parkway.
They reportedly also stated that the cost of the two car parks would be the full £2.6 billion – which would be £72,000 per space.
But the airport denied this and told the Daily Mail ‘This is another misrepresentation of the facts.
‘We want to make it easier and more convenient for passengers and colleagues travelling to and from the airport and Heathrow expansion presents a unique opportunity to transform this.
‘Our proposal includes an estimated construction cost of £1.3 billion that would combine 20 current car parks into two dedicated parkways either side of the airport.
‘Wider investments also include an overhaul of how passengers travel around the airport campus and a new parking, drop-off and bus facilities at Terminal 5.
‘Expansion and our wider plans to fully modernise Heathrow will create a hub fit for the future, giving passengers more choice, lower air fares and state of the art facilities.’
Plenty of upgrades are in the works for the huge airport, and the third runway was recently fast-tracked in the Government’s £29 billion makeover – meaning it could be unveiled sooner than expected.
Flights could take off from a new runway by 2035.
It will open up at least 30 new daily routes and serve up to 150 million passengers, Heathrow said.
This could include dozens of routes to new destinations – including new direct flights to Peru, Indonesia, Argentina and the Philippines.
A major overhaul of Terminal 4 also falls under whopping investments coming this year.
T4 will receive a major revamp, with construction planned to start soon in phases to ensure operations continue as normal.
It will include a brand new multi-storey car park as well as an upgraded check-in area, and the work is expected to be finished in 2031.
Terminal 2 is also set to receive a new dedicated baggage system next year.
Some 31,000 bags per day will be handled by the new system, helping to improve efficiency and service for passengers.
A new assistance area will also be built in the terminal, giving passengers direct access to security, and all assistance areas across Heathrow will be upgraded.
The investment will also cover the installation of cameras across the airport’s stands that will use AI to speed up the turnaround processes between flights.
