Boris Johnson has appointed Sir David King, the former government chief scientific adviser, to spearhead a new panel investigating the feasibility of a new international airport hub on the Thames estuary as a report today concluded there were no "overwhelming constraints" to the project.

Johnson announced the line-up of the Thames Estuary Airport Steering Group on the day that a preliminary feasibility study was published finding that the concept of a 24-hour airport running 365 days a year on the Thames estuary presented "no insoluble issues" and ought to be examined in closer detail.

Johnson has invited the author of the report, Doug Oakervee, a civil engineer and the former executive chair of Crossrail, the cross-London railway project, to be on the steering group. Oakervee was asked by Johnson to undertake a study into the feasibility of building and operating an international hub airport within the estuary, similar to Hong Kong international airport.

Oakervee concluded that "although it is clear there are no overwhelming constraints to building an airport on the estuary, we are not yet in a position to decide when or how or exactly where it should or could be built". He added: "I cannot emphasise enough the importance of progressing this work."

Read the full article in The Guardian.


Oakervee's report has a major factor in its favour - BAA was not invited to contribute and therefore has not been able to unduly influence it.

However, many questions remain unanswered. He says "The concern for the health and safety of the citizens of London and especially those under the flight path must be dealt with separately and differently since the introduction of an estuary airport is unlikely to resolve the problem in the foreseeable future. How this is to be done is however not the subject of this review" and "It certainly would appear that a further airport is required by or before 2030".

Even if this scheme were to get the go-ahead we will be fighting Heathrow expansion for another 20 years.