A furious row has erupted over the Airports Commission’s rejection of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s plan for a new Thames estuary airport.
Proposals to expand either Heathrow and Gatwick would run into hurdles – as they had done in the past – and any future government would return to the Thames estuary plan, Johnson claimed.
That would make any future recommendation made by the Airports Commission “irrelevant”, he said.
Johnson suggested that the commission’s final findings would be ignored by the next government and that the exercise was “all a gigantic smokescreen for a U-turn on Heathrow”.
Commission chairman Sir Howard Davies hit back at Johnson’s accusation that yesterday’s decision not to shortlist the Thames estuary airport proposal followed pressure from Whitehall.
The Mayor reportedly claimed Sir Howard had privately told him that another airport commission would be needed in 2020, making a third – and possibly a fourth – runway at Heathrow inevitable.
But Sir Howard told the Times: “I am afraid the truth is he thinks that he will best mobilise opposition to Heathrow if he says, ‘When they say third runway they really mean four’, and it is not true. It just is wrong.”
He added: “We have produced a unanimous decision on the basis of a pretty well argued paper. And then you have somebody tell you, ‘Oh, you’ve just been leaned on by the civil service’.
“Well no, I’m sorry, that’s not the way we worked. I think he is not looking carefully at the analysis and I think that’s what he’d be better advised to do than produce conspiracy theories.”
The commission said in a 45-page document that the “least ambitious version of the scheme” in the Thames estuary would cost the taxpayer between £30 billion and £60 billion.
The report also concluded that the challenge of relocating vast numbers of migratory birds to a newly created habitat “may prove impossible, or very time-consuming, to surmount”.
The report estimated that the average passenger travelling to the proposed new airport, located about 35 miles east of central London, would have 20 minutes added to their journey when time compared to travelling to and from Heathrow.
Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, welcomed the rejection of the Thames estuary option and said: “We now encourage the commission to push ahead with the next stages of its work, keep to its timetable and make its final report no later than summer 2015, as the Commission itself set out.
“We also continue to encourage all political parties to commit to acting on the recommendations in the final report in 2015, to ensure the UK has the network of vibrant point-to-point airports and sufficient world class hub capacity it needs to link to existing and emerging markets in the future.”
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye, writing in the Telegraph, said: “The Airports Commission’s decision to rule out the Mayor of London’s preferred option of a Thames estuary airport leaves Heathrow as the only hub airport in the race.
“The Mayor and I disagree on the best location for a hub airport, but we both agree that a successful hub – where transfer passengers combine with local passengers to make long-haul routes viable – is vital for Britain’s future.
“We also agree that the political prevarication that has beset the airports debate for the last 50 years has not served this country well.
“That’s why I extend an open invitation to the Mayor to work with us now to expand Heathrow in a way which reduces noise for local residents while delivering the economic growth our country needs.”