Ninety per cent of the airlines that use Heathrow say no to a Thames Estuary airport
Nearly nine out of ten of the international airlines using Heathrow are against the plan to build a Thames Estuary airport.
The Mayor of London wants to build a huge six-runway airport on an island off the Kent coast at a cost of more than £40billion.
But a survey carried out by Medway Council shows that nearly nine out of ten of those that fly in and out of Heathrow are opposed.
They include some of the world’s largest airlines such as British Airways, Air France, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, Qantas and TWA.
In a letter to Medway Council’s Leader Rodney Chambers, Michael Carrivick, chief executive of the Board of Airline Representatives UK, said:
“In brief BAR UK and its members do not support such an airport.
“The reasons are many and various, but all from objective points of view.”
Bar UK represents 78 of the 90 airlines and it says all its members are against the Thames Estuary airport on safety and economic grounds.
Bar UK lists its main arguments as:
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Huge safety fears of bird-strikes from large colonies in the estuary.
- It would cause huge unemployment around Heathrow, which employs 70,000 direct staff, and the collapse of the economy of Thames Valley and west London.
- It would cost billions of pounds of public money to fund the new site, whereas Heathrow’s runway expansion would be paid for by the airport operator and its airline customers.
- There is inadequate transportation to handle the projected 63 million passengers per annum that would start and finish their journeys at a Thames Estuary airport.
- Transport problems caused by passengers from the South West, Wales and southern Midlands having to travel through or around London to access the estuary.
- As Heathrow is a major hub airport ‘it is naive to assume airlines and passengers would simply use Thames Estuary as an alternative’.
- Unknown dangers connected to wartime munitions ship sunk in the estuary with volatile cargo.
Mr Carrivick added: “Any airport operating the estuary would severely affect the use of continental airspace – which would require, if it was feasible, considerable re-design.
“It would also severely affect the operations of at least one of the existing London airports on the eastern side of the metropolis.
“And it would still require many departing and arriving aircraft to fly over London, so nullifying one of the reasons for building an estuary airport.”
The airlines’ response has been welcomed by Medway Council, who have already joined with Kent County Council and the RSPB to campaign against the Thames Estuary airport plan.
Now Medway Council’s group leaders will visit the Mayor of London’s office tomorrow (Tuesday, 2 March) where they will demand the airport scheme is grounded.
And the council has produced an innovative pie in the sky style poster to mark this trip and to show what they think of the plan.
People who are against the airport plan can download the poster – which shows a pie with airplane wings flying over the Thames Estuary – from the campaign’s website (www.stopestuaryairport.co.uk) and use it to show their opposition.
At London’s City Hall, the council’s group leaders will meet Kit Malthouse, the Mayor of London’s deputy, and will hand him a damning dossier telling him exactly why the airport must not go ahead.
The report that will be presented to Mr Malthouse – called Thames Estuary Airport – Feasibility Review – shows that an estuary airport would be too far from London and that it would be too close to the major liquid natural gas port, Thamesport.
The report also shows that aircraft would be 12 times more likely to suffer bird strike than at any other major UK airport.
Medway’s group leaders will ask Mr Matlhouse to make sure that Douglas Oakervee, the civil engineer behind the scheme, takes the report into account when he addresses the London Assembly’s Environment Committee on this issue on 11 March.
Council leader Rodney Chambers has repeatedly called the airport plan pie in the sky.
He said: “We are meeting London’s deputy mayor Kit Malthouse tomorrow to tell him that not only do the people of Medway and Kent not want this airport, neither does anyone else.
“I have continuously said that the Mayor of London’s estuary airport plan is pie in the sky.
“I would urge people to show support for our campaign by printing off our poster and putting it up in their house, local pub, coffee shop or even place of work to show that they echo these views.
“At the meeting with Mr Malthouse tomorrow we shall give him our report, which is backed by all of Medway’s councillors, and ask him to make sure that the engineer Doug Oakervee gets a copy before he addresses the London Assembly the following week.”
Cllr Paul Godwin, Leader of Medway Council’s Labour Group, added: “Boris Johnson has gone on record stating that he feels an airport in our estuary would be the solution to planes from Heathrow rattling his living room windows.
“If he feels that the pollution, increased traffic, noise and poor quality of life for residents are reasons not to have a third runway, then how can he support dumping an entire new airport on the residents of North Kent, just to solve his problems?
“We will be emphasising to Boris’ deputy that this is unacceptable, and that there are other places, such as Manston, that are both more sensible and are in support of such an idea.
“I hope that the council will work hard to create a broad coalition of groups that are opposed to the airport, to ensure that the message to Boris is clear- we will never allow an airport to be built here.”
Cllr Maureen Ruparel, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at Medway Council, said: “I simply cannot understand how anyone can possibly imagine that an airport right in the middle of the Thames estuary could, in any way, be construed as being ‘Green’.
“Apart from the disastrous effect on wildlife, the unknown effect on tidal flows and fish stocks and the risk to aeroplanes from bird flight, the amount of infrastructure required on both sides of the estuary would turn current green and pleasant sites into concrete wastelands.
“The South East of England is already overcrowded with insufficient infrastructure to support the amount of housing being forced onto it by successive governments.
“It simply does not make sense to add one more airport with all the additional roads, premises for support businesses, additional housing and storage facilities.”
The Leader of the council’s Independent Group, Cllr Tony Goulden said: “It is difficult to understand Boris’ obsession with this monstrous pile of sand, cement & tarmac that he wants to dump off the shore of Whitstable.
“The ecological disaster would only be matched by the influx of workers relocating from Heathrow all demanding to be housed which result in us concreting over even larger areas of countryside.
“Someone needs to tell Boris that he is only the Mayor of London – not the Lord of Kent!”
“Perhaps he wants to be Boris the Conqueror, but instead of creating the Domesday Book he will create a Domesday scenario for North Kent.”
Notes for editors
The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) represents more than 90 scheduled airlines with a UK interest. Seventy-eight of these use Heathrow. For more details on BAR UK and who it represents go to www.bar-uk.org
