Airports Commission delivers next analysis on UK expansion plans

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The UK’s Airports Commission today unveiled its latest analysis of the  remaining three expansion projects on the table – and claimed that all three had underestimated costs. But in a coup for Heathrow, which is involved two of the projects, the Commission found that a new runway at the hub airport would contribute between £112 and £211bn to the economy and an additional 130,000 more jobs than Gatwick would gain, 70,000 of them in manufacturing. But whichever airport comes out on top in the Commission’s final report, weak political will could still scupper UK aviation and the benefits it could bring.