The world's fourth busiest airport is getting even bigger. Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Leanna Byrne. Good morning. And what airport is the fourth busiest globally, you might ask? Well, it's London's Heathrow. And today the British government has announced it's to get a third runway. Chancellor Rachel Reeves says it'll

make the UK more globally connected as she pushes for growth in the economy. The BBC's

Sean Farrington has been looking into this one. Hello. Hello. Now Heathrow, it's one of the

biggest airports in the world and supporters of this expansion say it would boost the economy. It's

going to boost trade and jobs. But is there any evidence for that? What could it do boost the economy, it's going to boost trade and jobs.

But is there any evidence for that? What could it do for the economy?

Well, Heathrow, we get told, is basically full.

Record numbers of passengers passed through Heathrow last year.

And so when something is full like that and we know that plane travel is growing at the moment,

there is that argument that there would be a benefit. You have more people going through Heathrow.

That would be an improvement for the economy. And also, if you have more people and therefore

need bigger infrastructure, something huge like a third runway, the amount of jobs that would

bring to the site itself, but also the wider area.

The theory is that that would help grow the economy a lot more.

But on the flip side, there are people who don't want it.

I mean, airlines are being asked to cut emissions.

So presumably this isn't a very green move.

Well, there's a debate about whether it's a green move because of what we hear from the aviation industry, no surprise, is that sustainable fuel has come on leaps and bounds since maybe the peak of the last debate of expanding the Heathrow airport.

But we've still had the likes of friends of the earth, the climate campaign group, saying it will be hugely

irresponsible to do this in the middle of a climate emergency.

Okay. The BBC is Sean Farrington. Thank you so much and thank you for joining us on Marketplace.

Thank you.

...