Britain's top court gives go-ahead to Heathrow expansion

Britain's top court gave the go-ahead to the expansion of Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, overturning a previous court decision which had blocked the 14 billion pound ($18.90 billion) plan on environmental grounds. The Supreme Court ruled in Heathrow's favour, allowing the UK's biggest airport to proceed with a plan to build a third runway.

Britain's top court gave the go-ahead to the expansion of Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, overturning a previous court decision which had blocked the 14 billion pound ($18.90 billion) plan on environmental grounds. The Supreme Court ruled in Heathrow's favour, allowing the UK's biggest airport to proceed with a plan to build a third runway. Heathrow is keen to proceed despite the plunge in air traffic during the pandemic.

In February, a court had declared the expansion unlawful on environmental grounds, with the judge saying that a failure to take into account the UK government's commitments on climate change was "legally fatal" to the plans. ($1 = 0.7408 pounds)