Heathrow airport shareholders could scoop £1.5 billion in dividends by 2027, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Industry regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has predicted it will hand huge payments to investors, benefiting major foreign shareholders such as the China Investment Corporation, Qatar Investment Authority and Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial.
The airport, currently battling strike action, paid out roughly £4 billion in dividends between 2012 and 2020. But this sparked criticism when shareholders did not inject cash into the business during the pandemic.
Forecast: Heathrow airport shareholders could scoop £1.5 billion in dividends by 2027
Since Covid it has been at loggerheads with airlines about passenger charges – fees to fund baggage handling, security and other costs. The dividend forecast was made in a recent CAA report about Heathrow charges.
Officials at trade union Unite have reacted furiously to the prediction, as around 1,400 security officers are set to walk out for three days this week after industrial action last month.
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, blasted what she said were ‘mega payouts to the shareholders while the workers who generate the dividends are on poverty pay’. Heathrow will not pay a dividend in 2023 after a £139 million first-quarter loss.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘We’ve been trying to give colleagues a 10 per cent pay increase since January, and offered a guaranteed inflation-matching increase for next year.’
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