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A report in today's Sunday Times says that Boris Johnson will make a new proposal for a new Thames Airport for London (Boris Island).
Clearly, London needs a new airport.
Heathrow:
Heathrow is bulging at the seams, and taxying there is a nightmare, with the ever present danger of wing-tip collisions. While terminals 1,2 & 3 are a national disgrace. Plus the approach and take off can both be over central London. Had this Korean Air 747 crashed on take-off from Heathrow, rather than from Stanstead, the results could have been dire.
Stanstead Boeing 747 crash.
BBC News | UK | Crash jet 'on fire at take-off'
Gatwick:
Gatwick probably has the slickest ATC in the world. But this does mean that "take-off immediate" actually means "why are you still here? you should already be half way down the runway". Likewise the approach spacing of 1.5nm means that the landing is often made with another aircraft still on the runway ("land after"). It is not an airfield for beginners or pilots from 'nations unacquainted with efficient operations'.
Stanstead:
Stanstead could be a major airport, but it needs another 4 runways, and is positioned in the wrong location. Many passengers want to get to the north and west, or to the continent, and that is not easy from Stanstead.
New London Airport:
A new London airport is definitely required, if London is to maintain its position as a world hub and a world business center. The central locations for world business are not enshrined in stone, and London is relying on borrowed time and yesteryear's legacy. Businesses and banks can go anywhere, and if Schiphol is a better hub, they will go there - especially since the Dutch speak better English than the English, and their education is streets ahead of Blair's dumbed-down education system (where a 25% grade is a 'C' pass, and 'speaking a foreign language' includes understanding BBC English - innit).
The plans:
Foster's Thames design:
Unfortunately, Lord Foster's concept for a Thames airport is a non-starter. The runways are too close together, which would greatly impede taxying aircraft and increase the danger of air-ground collisions. The terminal is at the end of the runway, which is both daft and dangerous in equal measure. And the site is next to a potentially highly explosive oil and gas terminal and a WWII wreck containing thousands of tonnes of explosives. And the westerly runways still require all flights to overfly central London (why are they so stupid?).
Clearly, Lord Foster needs fewer planners and lawyers on his team, and a few more pilots and air-traffic controllers.
Boris' Thames design:
This is a better idea - a new island in the Thames estuary with as many runways as you like (preferably 6), all facing southwest, and with the terminal buildings joined into the UK's new high speed rail network. This proposal takes the noise and danger away from London, allow 24-hour operations, and would reinstate the UK as a world aviation hub (and therefore a world business hub).
But please, Boris, do make sure the cross-rail project links into this new airport, and do make sure that the TGV Channel rail-link and proposed TGV Manchester rail-link also converge here. Some brain-dead planning plonker has already built the TGV Channel link too far to the west of this site, which has wasted £billions, so please do not allow the new Manchester TGV link to be built without a link to the Thames airport.
If Cross-rail will allow high speed trains, then link the Thames airport to Cross-rail, towards the west of London, and then up through the proposed Manchester TGV route. If not, then you will need a N.E. london bypass line, to link up with the Manchester TGV line.
P.S. The idea of two terminals in this plan is a non-starter. People want to come from Europe, from the UK's north, west and south, and arrive at the airport. Guiding all the TGV rail lines and motorways so they pass through two terminal sites on either side of the Thames is just crazy. You need one large airport complex, with the terminal(s) at the center.
Oh, and since I know that planners and architects are generally brain-dead - please add another 3m of height to all your plans and calculations, to allow for the settlement that planners never allow enough for. (Google Kansai Airport).
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