Back Heathrow supporters were joined by Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye, at the campaign group’s annual Summer Party last week.

The event was held at the Indian Gymkhana Club in Osterley, with nearly 400 hundred local residents from across West London in attendance, to celebrate the airport’s continued success, and to reaffirm their support for the airport’s growth.

Alongside local residents, representatives from west London councils attended, alongside local businesses and key officials from the Unite and GMB trade unions.

Mr Woldbye paid tribute to the work of Back Heathrow supporters and told the audience that the airport was proud to have seen over 81 million passengers move smoothly through the airport over the past year.

Heathrow now has a record 90,000 people working at the airport. Heathrow now has a record 90,000 people working at the airport. He explained how efforts were being made to increase capacity in the short-term as well as looking closely at plans for long-term growth.

In his speech to the audience Parmjit Dhanda, Executive Director of Back Heathrow said:

“We are here to celebrate the men and women who came to West London to transform our airport from a patch of mud and grass in the 1930s to being Britian’s biggest single site employer, its biggest business rate payer and our biggest port by value of goods.”

He also reminded the audience that ‘The Airport’s Commission’ consultation in 2015 received 62,000 responses about where to expand airport capacity, and over 53,000 of those were from Back Heathrow supporters - who want to see growth at their local Airport.

After speeches, guests engaged in a Q&A with the CEO, raising the importance of the Western Rail Link for local jobs, support for local community funding from Heathrow and the importance of more jobs for the local community.

Back Heathrow is a local community campaign representing over 100,000 residents living close by to Heathrow Airport, who back a new runway at Heathrow.