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Heathrow’s chief executive has said the airport feels crowded because British and European travellers walk on opposite sides and keep bumping into each other.
Thomas Woldbye said the UK’s only hub airport held more passengers per square metre than rivals such as Amsterdam’s Schiphol because it was a smaller site. But people being in “the wrong place” made the terminals feel busier than they were, he said.
“One of the reasons people think [Terminal 5] is crowded [is] people are in the wrong place,” he told the Aviation Club UK, referring to the terminal used by British Airways owner International Airlines Group.
“The problem is that all the British people keep to the left and normally Europeans keep to the right. And they do that in both directions. So we can be crashing into each other, and I see that from personal experience,” he added.
Woldbye, who is Danish and has been at the helm since 2023, defended the airport’s planned expansion, which would see it build a third runway as part of a £33bn investment programme.
Airlines including BA, which has half of all landing slots, have warned that the costs of the programme will feed into higher charges paid by them.
The Civil Aviation Authority, the UK sector regulator, is already considering changes to Heathrow’s regulated model that would address some of the concerns raised by carriers.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has backed the expansion, saying a third runway will “unlock further growth”, although environmental groups have raised questions about the compatibility of the project with the government’s legally binding net zero 2050 target.
In wide-ranging remarks at the Aviation Club UK, which hosts leading sector executives monthly, Woldbye on Thursday said Heathrow was already full.
The site, which handled 84mn passengers last year, would already have 120mn passengers if it had already built an additional runway, he said.
While Heathrow expects to spend the coming 10 years gaining approval and building the runway, other hubs — especially in the Middle East or Turkey — are growing faster.
“London will lose market share every single year for the next 10 years,” Woldbye said. “I think that should be a serious concern.”
The third runway, if approved, will not be opened until at least 2035, though many in the industry expect the timing to slip.
The growth of European hubs such as Schiphol — which has five main runways — has also led people in the UK to fly there for transfer to long-haul flights, taking business away from Britain, Woldbye said.
“I know of no other country where the domestic transfer has been outsourced to another country,” he said.
Woldbye also defended Heathrow’s plans to spend £2.6bn building two new car parks, each with a capacity of 6,000 vehicles.
The costs came from land being purchased and knocking down existing buildings on the site, he said. The plans were revealed as part of Heathrow’s application for the work last summer.
“If anyone can build it cheaper, I will happily outsource it to anyone,” he said.
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