What’s happening?
Tomorrow, former CBI economist Howard Davies will release an interim report on the options for expanding Britain’s airport capacity. Some of the possibilities Davies has been considering include developing the regional airports (possibly with a High Speed rail element), building a new giant hub airport in the Thames Estuary, expanding capacity at Gatwick or Stansted Airports, or building a new runway at Heathrow.
What will Davies say tomorrow?
Both Sky News and the Sunday Times have reported that Davies is going to back three ‘favoured options’ in his report:
- Third runway at Heathrow
- Third runway at Heathrow and one at Gatwick
- Two new runways at Heathrow
As well as discounting the option of expanding regional airports, the most obvious missing solution is Boris Johnson’ Thames Estuary airport, aka Boris Island.
So, Heathrow will be getting bigger?
Not quite yet — all of the rumoured options politically toxic.
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