Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast. It's Wednesday the 26th of February

and it's a busy week for the UK's two busiest airports. Tomorrow we're expecting Gatwick Airport

to get a decision from the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on whether or not they can bring

the second standby runway into permanent use.

All the signs are that they will be given the go-ahead.

But today Heathrow Airport has announced record passenger numbers, cargo up 10% and says

we want planning permission for a third runway by the end of this Parliament,

which would be in the summer of 2029. I've been talking to the chief executive of Heathrow Airport

Thomas Walby and first of all asked him how last year had worked out.

Most I'm really proud of what has taken place at Heathrow in 2024.

Great results have been delivered by all the access,

so our airlines, our handlers, and also our own people,

which has led to a strong financial result.

We're happy with record levels of passengers.

People do want to fly, and we want to make that as easy as possible.

Talk about the increase that you've managed to secure, even though, as you will know, better

than anybody, Heathrow is effectively full.

This just underlines the need for a third runway to secure economic growth.

We are getting to the point where we're full.

We're working very hard with our airlines to create additional resilience in this scenario

because that is what we need to give people a good service.

We are trying to make our processes more efficient.

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