Foster & Partners submit their Isle of Grain airport scheme and Boris courts Chinese and South Korean backers

Sky News says advisers to Boris have held initial talks with wealthy foreign institutions including China Investment Corporation (CIC) and officials in South Korea about the Isle of Grain, Thames Estuary hub airport project.  Boris now prefers the Isle of Grain as the location site for an airport, rather than “Boris island”.  Other institutional investors including City-based pension funds and infrastructure firms are also understood to have told the Mayor’s advisers that they would consider putting long-term capital into the Isle of Grain scheme, which has been called the Thames Hub Airport.  Boris is understood to be determined to identify as much private sector funding as possible for a new airport, whereas his principal aviation adviser, Daniel Moylan, is said to be keener on the idea of government financing. On 19th Foster & Partners submitted the Isle of Grain airport scheme to the Airports Commission. Chinese backers are being courted for a number of new UK projects, including a new ‘super-sewer’ under London.

.

London Mayor Eyes Chinese Funds For Airport

State funds from Asia have indicated interest in funding new airport favoured by London Mayor, Sky News learns.

Proposed airport on Isle of Grain (Pic: Foster and Partners) 
Artist’s impression of proposed airport (Pic: Foster and Partners)

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

[The Foster & Partners have submitted their scheme to the Airports Commission:                    The report is available online here. ]

State funds from China and South Korea are preparing to deliver a major boost to Boris Johnson by committing billions of pounds to the construction of a new London hub airport.

Sky News can reveal that advisers to the Mayor of London have held initial talks with wealthy foreign institutions including China Investment Corporation (CIC) and officials in Seoul about the project.

The preliminary discussions represent a boost to Mr Johnson’s hopes of promoting the Isle of Grain as the location for a new London hub airport, which in recent months has become his preferred choice for unlocking further capacity in London’s skies.

Other institutional investors including City-based pension funds and infrastructure firms are also understood to have told the Mayor’s advisers that they would consider putting long-term capital into the Isle of Grain scheme, which has been called the Thames Hub Airport.

Mr Johnson is understood to be determined to identify as much private sector funding as possible for a new airport, whereas his principal aviation adviser, Daniel Moylan, is said to be keener on the idea of government financing.

On Friday, the blueprint for the Isle of Grain airport in north Kent was published by Foster + Partners, the architectural partner for the scheme. It argues that the project would cost £24bn, less than analysts had expected.

A Government-established commission on the future of London’s airports, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, will publish its interim findings in the coming months.

Rival companies are vying to promote the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick alongside those who believe a wholly-new airport is essential to safeguard Britain’s economic competitiveness for decades into the future.

Mr Johnson last week proposed the closure of Heathrow – which he said the Government should buy for £15bn and turn into a town housing 250,000 people.

In addition to the Isle of Grain site, the Mayor commissioned feasibility studies on a new artificial island in the Thames Estuary and on the expansion of Stansted. All of the options would require four runways, he said.

“Ambitious cities all over the world are already stealing a march on us and putting themselves in a position to eat London’s breakfast, lunch and dinner by constructing mega-airports that plug them directly into the global supply chains that we need to be part of,” he said last week.

The Mayor’s press office declined to comment on the talks with potential investors in a new airport.

The discussions will, however, come as little surprise since powerful sovereign wealth funds have become crucial sources of finance for western infrastructure developments.

Chinese backers are being courted for a number of new UK projects, including a new ‘super-sewer’ under London and the next generation of nuclear power stations.

CIC is also a minority shareholder in Heathrow Airport Holdings and may have mixed views about the relative merits of the options for expanding British aviation capacity.

http://news.sky.com/story/1118701/london-mayor-eyes-chinese-funds-for-airport
.

.

Foster + Partners submits Thames Hub proposal to Airports Commission

19.07.2013  (Foster & Partners press release)

The report is available online here.

Foster + Partners has formally submitted plans for a new four-runway hub airport on the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary to the government’s Airports Commission. The Thames Hub Airport proposal has been advocated by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and has been developed with the support of a number of leading organisations.

The new hub airport can open in 2029 with capacity for 110 million passengers per year at a cost of £24bn, and has the flexibility to grow to 150 million passengers per year and beyond. The majority of flights can approach the airport over water, relieving five million Londoners of the noise, pollution and dangers of flight paths over the capital. Unlike Heathrow, the airport can operate 24-hours a day. The airport has a viable private funding model, which ensures that it will be financially sustainable and can achieve a fair price for passengers and airlines.

The proposed site capitalises on the eastward thrust of London’s development and existing investments in high-speed rail, reducing the need for additional surface access by connecting with High Speed 1, High Speed 2 and Crossrail. Journey times by rail from St Pancras would be just 26 minutes, or 40 minutes by rail from Waterloo. The Thames Hub Airport is also strategically located close to the South East’s major ports, including the new Dubai Port World’s Thames Gateway, to enable the successful economic integration of rail, sea and air freight.

Under current legislation, the planning process would be identical to a third runway at Heathrow. The Thames Hub Airport can open within 16 years. A third Heathrow runway would take the same time to build and would be full within a decade of opening, necessitating a fourth runway. Fewer homes would be relocated than at Heathrow and, without the constraints of an urban site and operational airport, it would be more cost-effective to build. Phased development can take into account evolving passenger demand and the transition carefully managed, with Heathrow transformed into a prosperous new London borough and a sustainable commercial centre to rival Canary Wharf.

Following the submission of Foster + Partners’ proposals, Lord Foster commented:
“The infrastructure of a nation can never be taken for granted. Only for so long can we trade on an inheritance from the past. Heathrow, with its military origins, is a case in point. There is a limit to how much it can be patched up and enlarged – even for the needs of today, let alone tomorrow – and would you ever choose a location which dictates flight paths over the heart of London?

We have reached a point where we must act, in the tradition of those Victorian forebears and create afresh – to invest now and safeguard future generations. Why should we fall behind when we could secure a competitive edge?

The choice is not about time or money. A new four-runway true hub airport in the Thames Estuary, at £24 billion, costs less to build than two extra runways at Heathrow and can be realised on a similar timescale. Our funding model shows that it could pay for itself within a decade of opening.

In the context of what we as architects have achieved, with our UK-based engineering colleagues, in Hong Kong and Beijing, our proposals are not even overly ambitious. They are cautiously well considered and based on a wealth of well proven experience.

But our proposal did not start as an airport – it was part of a wider remit. London, like New York and other centres of economic influence, has to face up to the threat of rising water levels triggered by global warming. An integral part of our long-term proposal is future flood protection for the nation’s capital and its eastward expansion, which is also a source of tidal energy.

The project also maximises the existing investments made in High Speed 1 by utilising its spare capacity to create fast, efficient access to the airport from London and continental Europe. By connecting the airport to Crossrail and High Speed 2, we can open up routes for the whole of the UK. The site’s close proximity to the South East’s major ports can give Britain’s manufacturing industry a vital strategic advantage in terms of freight distribution.

We are not proposing the best new international hub in the world as an alternative to the existing stock of secondary and regional airports in the UK. On the contrary, given the current pattern of the industry’s growth, it would work in parallel with them.

Heathrow may be in the worst site for an airport, but it is a perfect location for new homes and clean technology-based research facilities. The opportunities it presents as a green field site are boundless – for starters why not Britain’s answer to Silicon Valley? Its proximity to London virtually guarantees its long-term development potential, aside from the environmental and security benefits that also follow from removing its blight as an airport.”

ThamesHub website

Notes to editors:

The report is available online here.

The document comprehensively addresses the airport’s strategic fit with the government’s policy goals, surface access, environmental impact, global connectivity, economic impacts, people, operational viability, and sets out a thorough schedule of costs, funding and delivery.

Unlike Heathrow, the airport can operate 24-hours a day. The airport has a viable private funding model, which ensures that it will be financially sustainable and can achieve a fair price for passengers and airlines.

The proposed site capitalises on the eastward thrust of London’s development and existing investments in high-speed rail, reducing the need for additional surface access by connecting with High Speed 1, High Speed 2 and Crossrail. Journey times by rail from St Pancras would be just 26 minutes, or 40 minutes by rail from Waterloo. The Thames Hub Airport is also strategically located close to the South East’s major ports, including the new Dubai Port World’s Thames Gateway, to enable the successful economic integration of rail, sea and air freight.

Under current legislation, the planning process would be identical to a third runway at Heathrow. The Thames Hub Airport can open within 16 years. A third Heathrow runway would take the same time to build and would be full within a decade of opening, necessitating a fourth runway. Fewer homes would be relocated than at Heathrow and, without the constraints of an urban site and operational airport, it would be more cost-effective to build. Phased development can take into account evolving passenger demand and the transition carefully managed, with Heathrow transformed into a prosperous new London borough and a sustainable commercial centre to rival Canary Wharf.

Following the submission of Foster + Partners’ proposals, Lord Foster commented:
“The infrastructure of a nation can never be taken for granted. Only for so long can we trade on an inheritance from the past. Heathrow, with its military origins, is a case in point. There is a limit to how much it can be patched up and enlarged – even for the needs of today, let alone tomorrow – and would you ever choose a location which dictates flight paths over the heart of London?

We have reached a point where we must act, in the tradition of those Victorian forebears and create afresh – to invest now and safeguard future generations. Why should we fall behind when we could secure a competitive edge?

The choice is not about time or money. A new four-runway true hub airport in the Thames Estuary, at £24 billion, costs less to build than two extra runways at Heathrow and can be realised on a similar timescale. Our funding model shows that it

  http://www.fosterandpartners.com/news/foster-+-partners-submits-thames-hub-proposal-to-airports-commission/
.

.

and a bit of history going back to 2010:

Airlines ‘90% against new Thames Estuary airport’ 

 3.3.2010   (BBC)

Nine out of 10 airlines using Heathrow Airport are opposed to Boris Johnson’s
plans to build a new airport in the Thames Estuary, a council has claimed.

The Mayor of London has given his backing to a scheme, thought to cost £40bn,
to use an island off the south-east coast for a six-runway airport.

But Medway Council in Kent says 90% of airlines including British Airways, Air
France and Virgin Atlantic are opposed.

A spokesman for the mayor said they would consider the findings.

The council is due to present a report to City Hall outlining their proposals.

Among concerns raised by the Board of Airline Representatives UK (BAR UK), which
represents 78 of the 90 airlines flying from the country, are:

  • A higher chance of bird strikes due to large wildlife colonies in the estuary
  • Unemployment caused at Heathrow by the arrival of a large competitor
  • The reported cost to the public purse – while another runway at Heathrow would
    be privately funded

Medway Council’s leader Rodney Chambers said: “We are meeting London’s Deputy
Mayor Kit Malthouse to tell him that not only do the people of Medway and Kent
not want this airport, neither does anyone else.

“I have continuously said that the Mayor of London’s estuary airport plan is
pie in the sky.”

Independent councillor Tony Goulden said: “It is difficult to understand Boris’
obsession with this monstrous pile of sand, cement and tarmac that he wants to
dump off the shore.

“Someone needs to tell Boris that he is only the Mayor of London – not the Lord
of Kent.”

A spokesman for the BAR UK said: “BAR UK and its members do not support such
an airport.

“The reasons are many and various.”

British Airways confirmed its opposition.

But City Hall officials have said previously an estuary airport could be built
entirely with private funding.

Medway Council leader Rodney Chambers was angered by the meeting

There has also been speculation that Chinese investors and Arab sheiks are waiting
in the wings.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor’s deputy, Kit Malthouse,
will be reviewing the representations from Medway Council as part of his work
to oversee further study on the use of the estuary.

“A holistic approach is needed when looking at any future use of the estuary.

“Issues such as the environment and ecology, regeneration, road and rail links,
shipping and ports, aviation and the effects, if any, on the local residents will
all be considered together.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8545118.stm
.

.

More information on the various Thames Estuary airport schemes at