Heathrow expansion a short-term stop-gap, says Paul Kehoe

RENEWED calls by Conservative Party backbenchers to re-open the debate about a third runway at Heathrow Airport have been dismissed by Birmingham Airport’s chief executive.

Paul Kehoe said having a third runway at the UK’s busiest airport would be a “short-term stop-gap”.

And despite pressure from sections of her own party, transport Secretary Justine Greening said the government remains opposed to a third runway at Heathrow.

She said expanding Heathrow was “not right” for the UK and other options needed to be considered – including building a new hub airport.

Some ministers have reportedly urged a rethink on Heathrow and there is business support for such a move in the South East.

Backbencher Tim Yeo said David Cameron must show whether he was a “man or a mouse” by backing the idea.

But the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats rules out any expansion of Heathrow before the next election, while Labour also currently opposes the idea of a third runway at the UK’s largest airport.

Birmingham Airport’s Paul Kehoe said: “Justine Greening was absolutely right to dismiss the latest calls for a third runway at Heathrow this morning. The third-runway is not a long-term solution but a short-term stop-gap that would take years to build.

“If we don’t want the UK to ‘slide towards insignificance’ we need to be thinking about a practicable long-term solution and stop wasting our time revisiting a third runway at Heathrow. As soon as we had built a third runway, we would need to build a fourth.

“An immediate solution should be to fully utilise the existing capacity at airports around the UK, which would relieve pressure on the congested South East.

“In the long-term, we should adopt a distributed model of aviation that would help to boost economic growth around the whole of the UK.”

In June, Birmingham Airport unveiled a new campaign calling for it and other airports to be seen as part of the solution to ease overcrowding at airports in the South East.

Its recent report – Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket: a challenge to aviation orthodoxy – argues that in order for the whole of Britain to capture the economic benefits of changes in global travel, the government must fully utilise existing airport infrastructure and pursue a balanced aviation strategy.

It argued that a third runway at Heathrow would only meet 7% of additional passenger capacity needs by 2050.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) in the West Midlands has accused the ‘London lobby’ of “stirring” up the Heathrow debate yet again – with no regard to a regional solution.

Regional chairman John Rider urged the government to remain resolute in opposing a third runway there.

“The answer is at Birmingham and other regional airports and it is available now,” he said.

“Birmingham already has the spare capacity and it will soon have an extended runway capable of taking long haul flights from China and the Far East.

“Greater utilisation of Birmingham Airport would help our region in so many ways and the UK is already well behind the likes of France and Germany in the number of Chinese visitors.

“The London-only fraternity are stirring it once more when the means of dealing with this problem are, in relative terms, on their doorstep. Travellers arriving at Birmingham can be in central London almost as quickly as it takes to struggle through clogged Heathrow and catch a train.

“The capacity exists today if only people like Tim Yeo would take off their blinkers. They need to look over their shoulders and open their minds because north of Watford lies the way forward, not the whole solution but a real opportunity.

“We must get away from being so London-centric.”

Meanwhile, a report on future aviation policy and air passenger duty is released today following a parliamentary inquiry.

Birmingham Airport submitted written evidence to the inquiry but is unhappy at the report’s findings.

It says the report fails to look beyond the traditional ‘hub and spoke’ model and doesn’t analyse future trends in the aviation industry such as the growth of ‘point to point’ and new city pairs.

It also argues that the report fails to sufficiently assess how existing capacity at UK airports could be put to best use to relieve overheated airports in the South East.

The report recognises that passengers want to fly from the airport that is most convenient but despite criticising air passenger duty, does not consider alternative approaches, Birmingham Airport suggests.

In response to the report Paul Kehoe said: “It is frustrating that this report fails to look beyond Heathrow-centric aviation orthodoxy that is stifling proper debate in this country.

“Rather than continually revisiting old schemes and ideas that have already been proven not to work, we need a fresh approach to UK aviation policy.”