London Mayor: Estuary airport would provide more jobs than any other option
UK's London Mayor Boris Johnson stated (26-Aug-2014) new figures indicate that having a new airport in the Thames Estuary would contribute GBP92.1 billion to the economy p/a and support 336,000 jobs around the country in 2050, around a third more than an expanded Heathrow and more than five times as many jobs as an expanded Gatwick would provide. The new figures were released on the day that a Chamber of Commerce survey found that the proposal to build a new airport in the Estuary is strongly supported by the Kent business community. Mr Johnson reminded the UK Airports Commission of the benefits of the Thames Estuary plan, publishing a report that compared plans for an estuary airport to the schemes already shortlisted and explained how it would be the only option that can fully address the economic and social challenges facing the country. In "Gateway to our Future: Why the UK needs a new hub airport" new figures from Oxford Economics that illustrate the contribution of a Thames Estuary airport to the UK economy are also released. It was reported: "In 2050, the air service connectivity available at a new four runway hub airport in the Thames Estuary would underpin £92.1bn of national GDP each year. By comparison, the inferior connectivity on offer at a three runway Heathrow would generate £59.1bn, and a two runway Gatwick only £22.6bn. These figures represent the impact each airport would have in facilitating trade, foreign direct investment and tourism". Ahead of a decision on shortlisting the estuary airport, the new report also makes a series of key recommendations and cautions to the Airports Commission. They include:
- The Airports Commission needs to look further ahead and take a wider view of its work so as to incorporate the challenges of a growing population into its thinking;
- The Commission needs to be clear as to its view on whether Britain can afford to lose its hub airport capacity. If it agrees with most observers that such a loss would be a mistake, with terrible economic consequences in the long term, then it must make that insight fundamental to how it conducts the remainder of its work;
- The Commission needs to recognise that a second runway at Gatwick will end Britain's hub aviation status and that imposing a third runway at Heathrow is environmentally unacceptable in a civilised city and fraught with political delivery risk;
- The Commission has identified the challenges to creating a new hub airport in the Thames estuary. It needs now to acknowledge that none of these challenges is insuperable in a confident, growing economy which can draw on Britain's great engineering expertise;
- If the Commission's recommendation about extra capacity in the southeast does not provide a high level of certainty of improved links between London and the regions and between the regions and the wider world, then the process will have failed many parts of the UK.