Tony Douglas, the Chief Executive of Heathrow airport has announced he will be resigning to join construction firm Laing O’Rourke.

His departure comes just months after Mr Douglas acknowledged that the world’s busiest airport was “bursting at the seems” and in “some places is held together with sticking plasters.”

Laing O’Rourke is the construction firm with a key role in the effort for the 2012 Olympics. Mr Douglas will join the firm as Chief Operating Officer next month.

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Owners of Heathrow, BAA, in a statement to the London Stock Exchange said: “Tony’s outstanding achievement for BAA had been the development of Terminal 5, one of Europe’s largest building projects, which remains on time and on budget.

“I would like to thank Tony for his tremendous contribution and wish him every success in his new role.”

His departure comes at the busiest time of year for Heathrow, with more than 200,000 passengers expecting to pass through the airport’s four terminals on some days.

Mr Douglas said he did not feel his departure would impact on the running of the airport.

He said: “The team in place here are very professional and very competent and have made appropriate plans to deal without me. No organisation is one person and Heathrow is a prime example of that. I will not make the difference between a great summer and an indifferent one.”

His successor will be Heathrow’s Managing Director, Mark Bullock.

(JM/KMcA)