UK airport gets green light to charge airlines more to use the hub, which is expected to mean higher fares for flyers.

Heathrow Airport will be allowed to charge airlines more for its services to recover money spent on the early stages of its third runway project. The aviation regulator is permitting the airport to claw back up to £320m through higher airport charges to airlines for each passenger. This is likely to end up adding 15p to ticket prices in 2028, rising to 30p in later years. A bidder which unsuccessfully put forward a rival design involving a shorter runway, Arora Group's Heathrow West, will also be allowed to recover £4.1m pounds in costs. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Heathrow said safeguards would be put in place to protect consumers from unjustified costs. At this stage, the costs being recovered are only for the early planning and design of the runway during 2025 and 2026. How much the cost of actually building the runway will add to ticket prices won't be clear for some time. Tim Johnson, the CAA's director of consumers and markets, told the BBC: "We've announced that the first tranche of costs, which is to help with the planning of this, can be recovered from passengers. That's up to a maximum of £320m." Heathrow airport will also be able to collect Heathrow West's costs up to November last year by adding to its airport charges.