Under aviation regulator proposals rival companies would bid to design and build parts of airport expansion

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Heathrow could be forced to allow other companies to design and build its third runway and new terminal after the UK aviation regulator argued that rival bids could keep construction costs down.

A long-awaited review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) proposes changes to the regulatory model that governs how Heathrow runs and covers its costs.

Airport reports 5% decline but transit passenger business rises as fliers use hub to avoid Middle East airports

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The number of passengers flying from London Heathrow fell last month, as war in the Middle East weighed on demand for international travel.

About 6.7 million people flew through the airport in April, a 5% drop compared with the same period last year.

Airport seeks deal with BA owner, Virgin and billionaire local landowner, who has own expansion plan, over cost and service issues

Heathrow’s new chair has opened talks with airlines and the billionaire local landowner Surinder Arora to defuse a row that threatens to further delay the £49bn plan to build a third runway at Europe’s busiest airport.

Philip Jansen, who was appointed at the start of the year, is understood to have held meetings with the airport’s carriers and with Arora, who has been promoting his own £25bn expansion scheme, in the hope of finding the middle ground in a row over cost and service issues.