HEATHROW: June 26, 2018. Infrastructure company Ferrovial, Heathrow’s largest shareholder with 25 percent, has announced it is moving its headquarters from Britain to Amsterdam in order to maintain the group's international companies under the umbrella of EU legislation.

The news follows a cautious welcome by IATA for the UK House of Commons vote a day earlier in favour of a third runway at Heathrow airport.

"After years of delay, the approval of the NPS is a momentous day for air travel not just in the UK, but for the global air transport network,” declared Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s regional vice president for Europe.

Schvartzman said the decision would create new jobs and new economic opportunities in the UK, and strengthen ties to growing export markets, as long as the expansion is delivered at a competitive cost.

“It would be a shame if, having waited so long for the fruits of expansion, the UK were to shoot itself in the foot by creating an overpriced, uncompetitive airport," he said.

Boris Johnson, whose Uxbridge, West London constituency is under the Heathrow flight path, had previously vowed to "lie down in front of the bulldozers" to prevent expansion at the airport. So to avoid voting against the government and the prospect of losing his feet he flew off to Afghanistan.

In addition to Ferrovial, Heathrow investors include the Qatar Investment Authority (20 percent), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (12.62 percent), Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC (11.2 percent), Alinda Capital Partners of the United States (11.18 percent), China Investment Corporation (10 percent) and Universities Superannuation Scheme (10 percent).