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News Desk
Pressure is mounting on the Government to rethink its Heathrow strategy, of ruling out a third runway, with the potential of a renewed legal challenge by BAA the owner of Heathrow, threatening to take the Government to court if it does not consider Heathrow expansion in its aviation review.
A new report by Oxford Economics has said that constraints on capacity at Heathrow would result in up to 5.8m fewer visitors to the UK from long-haul destinations annually by 2021.
The "Boris island" airport, a new airport hub planned in the Thames Estuary would take 25 years to complete, by which time tourism, exports and foreign investment would be hit, according to the business group Institute of Directors (IoD).
Unite and GMB unions have joined forces with the IoD to warn the UK is not "open for business", adding it is "plain daft" not to consider expanding Heathrow. Some 140,000 jobs are at risk without action to increase the UK's aviation capacity, they said.
Simon Walker, IoD director-general, said: "It's not enough for Government to be telling the world that the UK is open for business. The lamentable failure to increase airport capacity means that jobs are already being lost to our competitors overseas. Without immediate support for our hub airport and a swift decision on new capacity, job losses will only increase."
Business leaders are adding their voice to growing anger that the coalition Government is unwilling to look again at expansion at Heathrow, wit more than 100 business, consumer and political figures urging the government to rethink its policy.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in 2010 campaigned against a third runway for Heathrow with the Prime Minister stating that the coalition's founding agreement stated "there will be no third runway at Heathrow".
Reporting by Paula Planelles and Douglas MacAndrew
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