London — London Heathrow airport’s £16bn expansion plan may have cleared its last major political hurdle, but the project has yet to convince British Airways, the hub’s biggest customer. After MPs backed the construction of a third runway by 415 votes to 119 late on Monday, BA owner IAG responded by saying that the financing arrangements proposed by Heathrow are likely to increase user charges and effectively require current passengers to fund future flights. "Parliament has approved Heathrow’s expansion without any idea of how much it will cost," IAG CEO Willie Walsh said in a statement. "We have zero confidence in Heathrow management’s ability to deliver this project while keeping airport charges flat." Heathrow, which counts Qatari and Chinese funds among its investors, said the vote backing the government’s national policy statement on airports, which enshrines the runway plan, was "momentous", and will unlock billions of pounds in growth and create tens of thousands of jobs in ...
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