Airport authority BAA has claimed that the development proposal for a second runway at Stansted will cost £1.4 billion, almost a fifth below initial projections.
BAA plans to open a 3,048m runway 2km to the south-east of the existing landing strip at Stansted airport in eight years' time, although development is not expected to be fully completed until 2030.
The overall cost of the project, which will increase the airport's capacity by ten million to 68 million passengers, was originally estimated by the government at £4 billion, but BAA claims it will not exceed £2.2 billion.
In addition, the airport authority's chief executive officer Stephen Nelson has revealed that the estimated land area required for the expansion has fallen 22 per cent to 486 hectares.
"With an opening cost of £1.4 billion and a 22 per cent less land take, we are confident of delivering a development that's fit for purpose – it will provide the increased runway capacity that the UK economy needs, good facilities for passengers and value for money for airlines. We have also worked hard to reduce the impact on the local environment," he said today.
But the plans have been given a decidedly frosty reaction by outspoken Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary.
The budget airline chief told the Today programme that the Stansted expansion project amounted to a waste of money.
Mr O'Leary said that BAA would be "wasting more than the cost of Wembley Stadium building facilities that the airlines don't want, that the customers will find inconvenient and hard to use, and it's time this monopoly was broken up".
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