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Heathrow has created a fake community support campaign to back its bid to build a third runway, rival Gatwick claims.
The row between the two airports intensified as Gatwick claimed Back Heathrow “wears the mask of a community group”.
In an open letter to Airports Commission chairman Sir Howard Davies, Gatwick chairman Sir Roy McNulty wrote: “Back Heathrow wears the mask of a community group when they are simply a campaign arm of Heathrow, set up and funded by the airport… (Its) recent surveys of local opinion show how they have been able to generate support essentially by scaremongering and, for example, setting up the entirely false choice between expansion and closure.
“Their current questionnaire – sent to 750,000 households – is similarly leading with a straight choice question on whether Heathrow should grow or become smaller for example.
“Clearly, if Gatwick expands, Heathrow would remain at least the same size as it is today and continue to thrive as part of a competitive network of London airports. I believe that the Commission, and everybody else, should view the statements and outputs from the Back Heathrow campaign with strong scepticism.”
Back Heathrow, which claims it has thousands of members, has received some funding from the airport and this was announced when the group was set up.
Heathrow told the Telegraph: “Heathrow has always been transparent about the fact that it helps fund Back Heathrow to provide a voice for the thousands of local people who would like to see expansion.
“The campaign itself has over 50,000 members and we support its continued efforts to give a voice to those who had previously not been heard in the debate on the airport’s future.”