Coyne tells UK to drop Thames Estuary airport for 3rd Heathrow runway

THE UK has no real use for the proposed Thames Estuary airport, but needs the controversial third runway at Heathrow, says Larry Coyne, CEO of London-based all-cargo Coyne Airways, reports Atlanta area Air Cargo World.

The third runway is opposed by environmentalists and the London Assembly, an elected watchdog overseeing the activities of the London mayor Boris Johnson.

Speaking at Coyne Airways' 20th anniversary celebrations in London, Mr Coyne said a third Heathrow runway should be built so cargo capacity is not frozen and the UK does not lose out to continental rivals.

"A modest cargo growth of three per cent per annum would mean a further 51 per cent cargo capacity would be needed," Mr Coyne said. "That happens to be the amount of extra capacity that Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Madrid currently enjoy over Heathrow."

Mr Coyne said the proposed Thames Estuary Airport, which has been planned at various sites at the mouth of the Thames since the 1970s, would be poorly positioned because London would be in between the new hub and the nation's main source of manufacturing in the Midlands.

He noted that nearly half of the UK's exports by value go by air and Heathrow handles 65 per cent of British air cargo.

"For many, it would entail writing off their investment in facilities extending all along the Thames, and either moving thousands of employees or recruiting and training new ones," Mr Coyne said.