LONDON, Feb 25: Four environmental campaigners breached security at London’s Heathrow airport on Monday, climbing aboard a parked aircraft and unfurling a banner protesting against runway expansion plans.

Police later arrested the four from Greenpeace who walked through security at one of the world’s most policed airports.

“Climate emergency. No 3rd runway,” read the banner they hung on the tailfin of a passenger plane that had just landed after a domestic flight from the northern city of Manchester.

The protest, with others to follow outside parliament later in the day, came just two days before the end of the government’s public consultation on the planned expansion which has pitted business against environmentalists.

Plans to build a third runway for what is already the world’s busiest international airport have sparked protests and a virulent blogging campaign stressing a contradiction between major aviation expansion and attempts to fight global warming.

“The arguments in favour simply don’t stack up,” said Nic Ferriday of the Aviation Environment Federation. “You can’t have the massive expansion of aviation in this country — led by Heathrow — when the government is at the same time promising to cut carbon emissions to fight climate change.”

Heathrow already handles 67.3 million passengers and 471,000 aircraft movements a year, figures which are forecast to double over the next 30 years if expansion goes ahead.

Businesses say Heathrow provides vital links to the United States, Europe and booming Asian economies like India and China.

More than a third of businessmen polled by London’s Institute of Directors took a business flight 10 times or more last year and say work would suffer if flights were curbed.—Reuters