Heathrow has declared a breakthrough in its frantic lobbying to secure new runways at the west London airport by claiming the support of Britain’s biggest business organisation.
However, the CBI, the author of a report into airport expansion that is being published today, rejected Heathrow’s claims last night, saying that it was, and intended to remain, agnostic over where any more runways should be built.
The CBI has stirred up the debate into airport expansion by circulating its latest policy position on the issue. For some time the CBI has stated that it believes London needs more runway capacity. Its latest report, however, states that that expansion should be targeted specifically at a single hub airport and that the hub should be future-proofed by the construction of enough take-off and landing space to satisfy demand into the second half of the century.
In its latest submission to the Davies commission into southeast aviation, which is not expected to report its conclusions until after the general election, the CBI states: “The UK must prioritise a single hub airport with spare capacity to support trade.”
In theory that covers three options: the expansion of Heathrow, the existing UK hub acting as a transfer centre for both long-haul and shot-haul international flights; the building of a new airport, such as the £50 billion Boris Island plan in the Thames estuary promulgated by the mayor of London but which is expected to be rejected by the Davies commission this week; or greatly expanding Gatwick and changing its international point-to-point, non-transfer business model.
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Heathrow has taken the CBI’s new stance to be supportive of its plans, calling the latest intervention a “really significant moment” in the debate. John Holland-Kaye, the Heathrow chief executive, in China this week lobbying for more routes to Chinese cities from the airport, said: “This recommendation by the CBI essentially shows that British business is backing Heathrow, as the UK’s only hub airport, to connect the country to global growth.”
Last night, the CBI rejected Mr Holland-Kaye’s claim. A spokesman said: “We are calling for action that prioritises emerging market routes, and the evidence we have produced suggests that the best way of achieving new routes to these markets is by having a single hub airport with spare capacity.
“At this time we don’t have plans to promote a specific preferred location prior to the Davies commission reporting.”