The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has rejected efforts from Heathrow to significantly raise its landing fees to fund a series of upgrades to the airport.

While Heathrow Airport is privately owned and run, it is strictly regulated by the CAA as it has an effective monopoly on many international long-haul flights, which could lead to steep price increases without government intervention.

With the current regulatory period coming to an end, the CAA has just published its initial proposals for the next period covering 2027 to 2031. While Heathrow wanted a 17% increase to landing charges (around £33 per passenger), the CAA set the cap on airport charges at between £27.20 and £30.50 per passenger.

The airport is currently undergoing a £10bn transformation plan that will see the demolition of Terminal 1 and revamps of both Terminal 2 and 4. Meanwhile, it is also installing a network of AI-powered cameras designed to improve punctuality and recently completed upgrading its security scanners allowing it to scrap the 100ml limit for liquids in cabin bags.

Longer term, it also received backing from the government in late 2025 to go ahead with constructing a third runway that will massively expand its capacity, albeit while placing the UK’s climate change goals in jeopardy.

Selina Chadha, group director of consumer and markets at the CAA, said: “Our primary duty is to protect consumers and at the heart of today’s proposals is doing the right thing for passengers using Heathrow Airport, while supporting sustainable growth, investment and efficiency.

“Our proposals for the airport charges levied by Heathrow on airlines strike the right balance between keeping passenger prices fair, while enabling the airport to make the investment needed to improve services for the future. We encourage all stakeholders to provide us with their views on our initial proposals.” 

Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow’s chief executive, warned that the price cap “may force choices that create trade-offs for service and delay delivery”.

The proposals for the next Heathrow price control are separate from the work that the CAA is conducting to support capacity expansion at Heathrow.

In February, the airport announced a boost to its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) incentive scheme including £80m this year to subsidise SAF for airlines. It is currently outperforming the UK government’s own mandates, aiming for 5.6% of all fuel used at the airport to be ‘green’ by the end of this year.

A research team recently tested a technique to produce a form of aromatic kerosene directly from vegetable oils that, when blended with paraffinic SAF, can entirely supplement fossil-fuel-derived jet fuels.