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(Adds judge comment, Heathrow comment)
LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Britain's top court gave the
go-ahead to the expansion of Heathrow Airport on Wednesday,
allowing the 14-billion-pound ($19-billion) plan to proceed
after decades of legal battles and political wrangling.
The Supreme Court ruled in Heathrow's favour, overturning a
previous court decision which had blocked the plan on
environmental grounds.
Heathrow, Britain's biggest airport, is keen to proceed
despite the plunge in air traffic during the pandemic which has
seen it lose its crown as the busiest hub in Europe.
In February, a court had declared the expansion unlawful,
with the judge in that case saying that a failure to take into
account the UK government's commitments on climate change was
"legally fatal" to the plans.
But the Supreme Court judge told a virtual session on
Wednesday that the government had taken climate change
commitments into account when designing its airport policy.
"For these reasons, the Court unanimously concludes that the
appeal should be allowed. The airports national policy statement
is lawful," judge Philip Sales said.
Since the ruling against the runway in February, the
aviation sector has been hit by its worst ever downturn, meaning
Heathrow now has plenty of spare capacity, but the airport said
another runway was still vital for the future.
"Demand for aviation will recover from COVID-19, and the
additional capacity at an expanded Heathrow will allow Britain
as a sovereign nation to compete for trade and win against our
rivals in France and Germany," a Heathrow spokesman said in a
statement.
The airport is owned by Spain's Ferrovial, the
Qatar Investment Authority and China Investment Corp among
others.
($1 = 0.7408 pounds)
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Kate Holton, writing by Sarah
Young, editing by Estelle Shirbon)
