BORIS Johnson tackled the weighty issue of international medical and security services in a typical manner, as he opened International SOS’s gleaming new Alarm Centre and global HQ in Chiswick Park…
He praised the security giant’s wisdom in choosing London, a city where staff are “erudite” in the global language of business: “What if someone rang from far afield saying the MD of a top company has been taken seriously ill, with an allergic reaction to pasties? The people handling that call here at International SOS would know, before dispatching an emergency team, to ask whether that referred to pasties – the type of hot pie that’s potentially fatal to British politicians – or Pastis, the popular aniseed-based knockout drink you get in France? That’s the kind of expertise you find at International SOS.”
On a more serious note, CEO Arnaud Vaissie said London was a key hub for the company, which has 800 staff of 43 different nationalities based in the UK. Around 300 will be based in the new Chiswick Park offices. He added that London was the “lead centre” of operations throughout the Arab Spring.
We looked around the impressive new Alarm Centre, with rows of consultants providing support to clients around the world via a network of 27 alarm centres, 700 sites, in 76 countries. Of the 300 staff here, 200 are physicians.
I asked Boris about the lack of runway capacity in the south-east. He said: “We have a world-class international airport at Heathrow, but the difficulty is you can’t keep endlessly expanding it – it won’t do to keep trying to pour a quart into a pint pot. But we do need more aviation capacity. I think Heathrow has a great future, but in my view a third runway is not a good idea for west London.
“We need a better solution, that's what we’re rooting for now. It could be a second runway at Gatwick – the planning permission comes up in 2019 – that’s looking more and more like an option, but there are plenty of other options as well….” he said, rather coyly alluding to the Thames estuary airport scheme that bears his name.