Heathrow Airport may need another runway, Airports Commission says

London's Heathrow airport could require a new runway to maintain Britain's status as a global travel crossroads, according to the body appointed to help ease a capacity squeeze at the country's facilities.

Heathrow, which has a pair of runways and is home to British Airways, could even require an extended strip acting as two runways, the Airports Commission said in a report that may reignite political clashes over Europe's busiest hub. Other options include expansion of Gatwick, south of the capital.

"The capacity challenge is not yet critical but it will become so if no action is taken soon, and our analysis clearly supports the provision of one net additional runway by 2030," commission chairman Howard Davies said.

A second new runway may also be needed by 2050, according to the panel, which did not endorse calls for a new hub in the Thames estuary.

Davies was appointed by British Prime Minister David Cameron to help depoliticise aviation policy, and is not due to make final recommendations until after the next general election in 2015. Still, his early findings may reopen political wounds, with many of Cameron's parliamentary colleagues opposed to growth at Heathrow because of the extra noise and London mayor Boris Johnson, also a Conservative, pledging to block any expansion plan.

The commission said it would take forward proposals for a new runway at Gatwick, plus options at Heathrow for a 3.5-kilometre strip to the northwest or the extension of the existing northern runway to at least 6km.