UK must retain its status as a "key global hub" for air travel, Prime Minister says

"We need to take decisions for the long term and we will be bringing forward options in our aviation strategy," David Cameron told the Institution of Civil Engineering.

In order to ensure that the UK would not become a "feeder route" to bigger airports elsewhere, the Prime Minister said that the strategy would include "an examination of the pros and cons of a new airport in the Thames Estuary.” He specifically acknowledged that the UK's "key hub airport", Heathrow, is at full capacity.

Transport Secretary Justine Greening is expected to publish the Government's aviation framework for consultation early next week, which will consider the options to increase airport capacity.

Passenger demand for London's airports is forecast to increase from 140 million a year in 2010 to 400 million passengers a year by 2050, according to a previous report by the Greater London Authority.

London Mayor Boris Johnson is a keen supporter of proposals for a new airport hub in the Thames Estuary, which have included "Boris Island" and Lord Fosters' £50 billion Thames Airport hub plans.

In an interview with BBC Radio Kent, mayoral election rival Ken Livingstone said that he was not persuaded that the UK needed more airport capacity. A new hub airport in the Thames Estuary would be "devastating" for west London, he said.

Planning and aviation expert Jon Riley with Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that airport capacity is an issue for the economy of the whole country, not just London. Whilst notable long-haul capacity to BRIC economies is being delivered by growing regional airports, we still need the critical mass that only a hub airport can offer to stay ahead of our global trading competitors, he said.

The Government has blocked plans for a proposed third runway at Heathrow since it took office in 2009, a decision which London First branded as “negligent” in a report (90-page / 2.3MB PDF), which called for “significant improvement” to the capital’s transport links.

"To deliver [hub] capacity in less than ten years, the only viable and deliverable alternative is Heathrow," Riley told the BBC. "A third runway at Heathrow was ruled out when the Government didn't accept the need for extra airport capacity. Now this has been acknowledged, any aviation consultation would be fatally legally flawed unless all the options, including Heathrow, are considered."

Without more airport capacity to provide the needed long haul flights to emerging markets in Asia and the Far East, the UK will come to a full stop, said airline owner Richard Branson. There is an urgent need for more airport capacity and a new airport that could take 20 years to build is not the answer, he said.

"We need a credible aviation policy that is robust, well reasoned, and that has considered all of the available alternatives," said Riley.