Boris to raise upto £80m from Arab states to build Thames Estuary airport

London Mayor Boris Johnson is planning to raise £80m from the Arab states for building a new London airport in the Thames Estuary.

In April, Johnson will take a week-long tour of the Gulf states including Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait to get funding for a new airport that can serve up to 180 million passengers a year.

Today, the Mayor is set to give evidence to the Commons transport committee as to why the Thames Estuary airport is a better option than expanding Heathrow and Stansed airports.

The Mayor’s £80m budget will cover costs of terminals, runways, ancillary facilities and rail and road access.

To get the airport off the ground, Johnson has taken on board Zaha Hadid, architect of the Olympic aquatics centre, Pascall + Watson, the firm behind Heathrow Terminal 5 and engineering firm Atkins for assessing environmental impacts. 

Speaking about the plans, Johnson said, “It is imperative that work to progress a new hub airport is completed as soon as possible. The Government has set a timetable that dawdles when dash should be the order of the day. I have assembled experts tasked with delivering an  examination of the most realistic solutions.”