Heathrow is not simply a London airport.

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It is the United Kingdom's only major hub airport: critical national infrastructure that connects families, exporters, investors, tourists and businesses to the world. The decisions taken now will therefore shape Britain's connectivity and competitiveness for decades.

That national role is sometimes misunderstood. Regional airports and Heathrow largely perform different, complementary functions. Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Belfast and other regional airports are best placed to serve direct routes where local demand can sustain them, particularly domestic and European services and long-haul routes with a sufficiently strong local market. A hub performs a different task: it pools demand from many origins, making a much broader range of long-haul destinations and frequencies viable.

That network effect matters. Regional airports provide breadth across the UK; Heathrow provides global depth. A passenger from a UK region can benefit from Heathrow's network even where their local airport could never support the same intercontinental route directly. Without a strong UK hub, the alternative in many markets is not necessarily a new direct regional service; it may be a connection through Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul or a Middle Eastern hub, with part of the strategic and economic value of that connectivity sitting overseas.

So this should not be framed as Heathrow versus Manchester, or London versus the regions. Britain needs successful regional airports and a successful, affordable hub. Used properly, each makes the other more productive and the country better connected.

The question is therefore not whether Britain should be ambitious about Heathrow. It is how we turn ambition into delivery - and do so at a pace and cost that airlines, passengers and the country can sustain.

For years, governments of different political colours have debated a third runway. The previous timetable envisaged flights from new capacity by 2035. Recent reporting, following Heathrow Airport Limited's own comments on the planning timetable, now points to operations potentially slipping to 2039 if consent is obtained in 2029. Four years matter. More importantly, another cycle........

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