Boris airport could be ‘superhub’ at Stansted

Boris Johnson will include Stansted in a £3 million feasibility study into a new superhub airport in the South-East.

The Mayor’s decision to look at expanding the Essex airport into a four-runway hub suggests it is now a serious contender.

Chancellor George Osborne is thought to consider Stansted a strong option to provide much-needed international runway space.

It would be a fraction of the cost of a new airport — a minimum of £60 billion — in either the inner or outer Thames estuary and rail links are already in place.

Mr Johnson is vociferously opposed to building a third runway at Heathrow, so is understood to welcome the idea of Stansted as a “compromise” candidate.

The study by Transport for London’s aviation team will also consider the Mayor’s favoured estuary sites.

Mr Johnson is expected to publish the criteria, which will form his submission to the inquiry headed by Sir Howard Davies, in early January.

His aviation team will consider the engineering and technical feasibility of a new hub airport at all three sites — and possibly a fourth.

They will also look at road and rail connections, environmental and economic impact as well as commercial viability.

Daniel Moylan, Mr Johnson’s aviation adviser, said: “The Mayor’s primary argument is that we need a proper hub airport, that it cannot be at Heathrow and that therefore needs to be somewhere else.

“If we’re going to get the regeneration benefits for London, especially east London, then a site in an easterly direction would be better than anywhere else. The estuary is the Mayor’s favoured site but he’s also looking at Stansted, which is in that arc.”

Under Mr Johnson’s plans, Heathrow would downsize to a small international airport — it currently serves 70 million passengers a year — as the new hub takes over.