Heathrow Airport warns third runway could be delayed by four years

Heathrow Airport has warned that its planned third runway might be delayed by four years due to planning and regulatory issues.

The government had hoped the new runway at the UK's busiest airport, estimated to cost £33bn, would open by 2035.

But Heathrow sees this deadline as increasingly difficult to deliver without further steps to simplify the planning process. It said on Saturday that it hoped to secure planning permission by 2029 and then open the runway "within a decade".