Heathrow Airport bosses to net bonus if third runway awarded

Owner's annual report shows executives would benefit personally from any expansion despite past denials

Heathrow bosses will stand to gain from bonus payouts if the airport gets permission to build a 17.6bn third runway, it has emerged.

Although the west London airport has previously denied the existence of any such financial incentives - not least when senior executives at rival Gatwick were found to have incentives to win a second runway - the annual report of Heathrow Airport Holdings states that during 2015 "a new bonus scheme was launched based on EBITDA, passenger service and airport expansion over the Q6 period" (pdf), which runs from 2014 to 2020.