Building a third runway at Heathrow remains the travel industry’s preferred option for increasing airport capacity in the south-east.
A survey of around 1,300 travel executives by World Travel Market found that 40 per cent believed that allowing Heathrow to expand was the best solution to the lack of hub capacity. This was up from 34 per cent in 2012’s study.
The second most popular option (29 per cent) was building a new hub airport in the east of London, such as the ‘Boris Island’ site in the Thames estuary which is supported by London mayor Boris Johnson.
The other solutions backed by the travel industry include expansion at Gatwick (15 per cent) or Stansted (4 per cent) and opening RAF Northolt for short-haul flights (3 per cent).
The Airports Commission is currently looking at the issue of whether the UK needs more hub capacity and will draw up a shortlist of possible options by the end of this year. Although a final recommendation will not be made until after the next general election in the summer of 2015.
More than half of those surveyed (52 per cent) said that the south-east needed extra airport capacity with 22 per cent saying there was no need for an increase.
A majority of executives (56 per cent) also fear that London’s status as a global aviation hub is under threat if there is not a rise in capacity, as other airports in Europe and the Middle East threaten to overtake Heathrow.
“Worryingly, almost as many senior executives (47 per cent) fear London’s position as a global aviation hub is under threat regardless of whether capacity is increased or not,” said the report.