IAG chief executive Willie Walsh is “not optimistic” that the independent commission into increasing airport capacity will find a suitable solution.
Walsh said that there was “no political will” to seriously tackle the lack of hub capacity in the south-east.
The government has set up an independent commission to look at way of increasing capacity which is being headed by former CBI director general Sir Howard Davies.
“In the absence of any cross-party consensus, I cannot see how anything constructive can come out of this commission,” said Walsh during a presentation to City analysts.
“There was a similar commission in 1968 which reported in 1971 and it’s still sitting on a shelf somewhere.
“We will consider how we engage with this commission and also any other opportunities to influence some of the thinking about airport capacity and more importantly airport charges.”
The commission has been tasked with looking at “all options” for increasing capacity, including a third runway at Heathrow which all three major political parties currently oppose.
Walsh added that IAG did not support using “mixed mode” flying at Heathrow to increase capacity. This system would allow both of the airport’s runways to be used for landing and taking off at the same time, instead of alternating between the two, but it would create more noise for local residents.
“Using mixed mode to deliver extra capacity would not benefit Heathrow,” he said. “We are very closely focused on how any development at Heathrow will translate into user charges.
“We’ve been very critical of the economic regulation of Heathrow – the regulator has been too generous with the airport in allowing them excessive return on investments they have made.
“We want to understand how any proposed change at Heathrow will translate into operating costs to us. We will be pushing very hard to ensure we and our customers can get value for any investment made at Heathrow.”