Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers claimed the Tories had forced BAA to "give up" its expansion plans and that the operator had told her that it would "not be submitting a planning application before the election".

BAA insist that expansion is still their intention as Heathrow operates at 99% capacity. Describing the planning application process as "complex", BAA said that it was "always going to take until after the general election". The company added that it is "convinced that a third runway is the only viable, costed and thought-through way of meeting the need for extra runway capacity to maintain this country’s global connections to the rest of the world."

The Conservative party has made its opposition to the proposed third runway into a major part of its otherwise business as usual environmental policies but is far from being anti-aviation. Labour on the other hand has been a vocal supporter of the third runway.

The media have as yet been slow to cover the denial by BAA. Indymedia picked up on the story from the Sunday Times and has up till now also not corrected the story.