Decision time: Davies weighs up mayor’s plan for a new hub airport

Sir Howard Davies, chair of the Government’s Aviation Commission, says new airport capacity is needed in the South East. But he still has to decide where it should be built. Daniel Moylan, the Mayor of London’s aviation advisor, tells Andrew Forster why building an entirely new hub airport to the east of the capital makes sense not just for aviation, but for the spatial development of the metropolis too

18 October 2013

Daniel Moylan

Moylan bemoans the fact that much of the “establishment” is still backing a third runway at Heathrow

Heathrow Airport from the air

Sir Howard Davies must have one of the toughest jobs in Government. Twelve months ago the former chief of the Audit Commission and the CBI was appointed chair of the Airports Commission and tasked with ending years of political rancour about whether – and where – new airport capacity should be built in South East England.

Davies answered the first question last week, telling an invited audience that there was a clear justification for new capacity. That, however, was arguably...