Proposals for a new hub airport in the Thames estuary, known as Boris Island, could be excluded from a shortlist being drawn up by the Airports Commission for airport expansion.
The project, which has been championed by London mayor Boris Johnson, is at “at risk” of not making the commission’s shortlist according to the mayor’s aviation adviser Daniel Moylan.
The commission, headed by Sir Howard Davies, will be producing an interim report later this month detailing a list of potential solutions to increase hub airport capacity in the south-east.
But Moylan has admitted that the Thames estuary proposal was the “option that is most at risk” of not making the commission’s shortlist.
He told the Daily Telegraph that the commission should include both the Thames estuary and expansion at Stansted in its shortlist – these two options have been supported by London’s mayor.
“If the estuary proposals are eliminated then it is incumbent on the Airports Commission and ministers to come clean with Londoners and the public about whether they can really contemplate inflicting the misery of an expanded Heathrow on a million people or developing Gatwick into a four-runway hub airport,” said Moylan.