Heathrow in talks with airlines to end row that could delay third runway

Airport seeks deal with BA owner, Virgin and billionaire local landowner, who has own expansion plan, over cost and service issues

Heathrow's new chair has opened talks with airlines and the billionaire local landowner Surinder Arora to defuse a row that threatens to further delay the 49bn plan to build a third runway at Europe's busiest airport.

Philip Jansen, who was appointed at the start of the year, is understood to have held meetings with the airport's carriers and with Arora, who has been promoting his own 25bn expansion scheme, in the hope of finding the middle ground in a row over cost and service issues.