One of the largest landowners at Heathrow Airport has put forward rival proposals for a new terminal and runway at Britain’s busiest airport.

The Arora Group argues its plans could save up to £6.7 billion when compared to the costs of Heathrow’ own plans.

The private hotel and property company commissioned a review of HAL’s plans and believes there are cheaper and better solutions to expand Heathrow and address the need for more airport capacity in the South East.

Further details on Arora’s proposals can be found at the following dedicated microsite.

The group’s views have been submitted to the department of transport in its recent consultation on the expansion plans, having commissioned a team of infrastructure and aviation experts including Bechtel to provide an initial assessment on potentially-improved delivery options for Heathrow Airport.

Arora now wants the government to look carefully at its proposals and to challenge the current monopoly status at Heathrow, at the same time that airlines are calling Heathrow’s own plan unaffordable.

Arora chairman and founder, Surinder Arora, said: “We want passengers to be at the heart of our plans and the current monopoly at Heathrow, which over-charges airlines and in turn raises fares for passengers, is not the right model for the future.

“Heathrow needs competition and innovation which puts passengers and airlines at the heart of the expansion project.

“We have brought together some of the world’s leading experts in infrastructure and aviation to develop the proposals that we have submitted to the government.

“We are now calling on the government to consider more carefully how competition can improve Heathrow’s offer to passengers, and how airlines at the heart of these plans will benefit passengers.

“We look forward to working with the new government to discuss these issues and how our proposals can help improve the airport’s expansion.

“One of the options we have proposed to government includes a possible shift of the runway so that it does not impact on the M25 and M4, as we know the M25 junction being affected threatens the deliverability of the whole project.

“We appreciate this is a politically sensitive issue but it is merely an option with additional savings of £1.5 billion, whereas the rest of our proposals save up to £5.2 billion, without the need to amend the runway location.”

Arora’s initial review proposes a number of potential wide-ranging improvements which could be realised in a more efficient master plan.