Airports Commission Had Rejected The Plan Last Year

The Mayor of London is continuing to lobby for a four-runway hub airport built on a man-made island in the Thames Estuary in East London despite its rejection by the Airports Commission last year.

Mayor Boris Johnson has released a report "Landing the Right Airport" in which he again makes his case against the expansion of Heathrow, and pitches the airport in the estuary.

“Heathrow has no silver bullet for its noise nightmare: you can shift flight routings all you like – but you can’t avoid the suffering – you just end up it inflicting it on thousands of new people,” Mayor Johnson said in his preface to the report. He said the Airport Commission found that "an expanded Heathrow would effectively be full shortly after opening. It predicted that a three-runway Heathrow would offer just seven additional long haul routes by 2030 – and three fewer domestic destinations than today. This is not the great increase in connectivity that UK businesses need."

He also said that a second runway at Gatwick will not solve the issue. He called Gatwick a "great airport," but said "it is not a hub."

Johnson said that the only real solution to the problem is the four-runway hub built on the estuary ... away from populated areas but connected by fast rail services to London and much of the U.K. "Our analysis predicts that they would offer around double the number of long haul and domestic destinations served by Heathrow today, while exposing 95% fewer people to significant aircraft noise.

The Airports Commission recommended the addition of a third runway at Heathrow rather than building a second runway at Gatwick. It rejected the new airport in the Estuary on cost and environmental grounds.

But the Airports Commission recommendation is only that ... a recommendation. The U.K. Government has delayed making the final decision until at least the end of the summer, according to Buying Business Travel.

(Images from file)

FMI: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/landing-the-right-airport.pdf