Will world's biggest airport be built on the Thames? Lord Foster unveils plans for £50bn site that will handle 150m passengers a year

  • Rival to Mayor's 'Boris Island' plan, it would run 24 hours a day and be more than twice as busy as Heathrow
  • A railway station to be built under the new airport would be the UK's busiest, handling 300,000 arrivals and departures a day
  • Critics say nearby gas storage and container port mean it is the 'daftest ever' airport plan for the area as results of a crash would be explosive
  • Medway Council accuse Lord Foster of never having visited

By Louise Eccles for the Daily Mail
Updated: 08:40 EST, 3 November 2011

It would be the biggest airport in the world.

Jutting out into the Thames Estuary, it would serve 150million passengers a year – more than twice as many as Heathrow – and operate 24 hours a day.

This is Thames Hub, the astonishing £50billion vision to solve London’s aviation crisis.

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Proposal: The estuary airport would be a transport hub with trains able to speed passengers all over Europe and Britain after they land

Yesterday, plans were unveiled for the four-runway airport on a sparse strip of land on the Isle of Grain, in Kent.

Designed by architect Lord Norman Foster – who created the new Wembley Stadium – the airport would be a modern-day feat of British engineering built on reclaimed marshland. It would include the UK’s busiest railway station, handling 300,000 passengers a day.

Icon: Norman Foster designed the new Wembley Stadium, and he is looking to create something similarly distinctive at the Thames Hub

Planes would fly in from the north-east, primarily over water, greatly reducing the number of homes that would be affected by aircraft noise.

With the Government having admitted in August that London’s main airports will reach bursting point in 2030 – and a third runway at Heathrow  having been ruled out – backers of Thames Hub insist it offers a splendid solution.

But they have yet to convince everyone, especially people living in the area.

Councillor Rodney Chambers, leader of Medway Council in Kent, said: ‘The Isle of Grain is home to one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas terminals, with a fifth of the UK’s gas supply offloaded by container ships and stored there.

‘We have looked at Lord Foster’s plan and he appears to want to place his fantasy Isle of Grain airport on top of the LNG plant and a power station. It beggars belief.’

Lord Foster said: ‘We need to recapture the foresight and political courage of our 19th century forebears if we are to establish a modern transport and energy infrastructure in Britain for this century and beyond. We can do it here.’

The airport’s backers claim that if the Government supports the scheme, sovereign wealth funds and wealthy foreign investors will stump up the cash to make it a reality.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson,  yesterday declared his support for the plans, despite them rivalling his own vision for a ‘floating’ airport in the Thames Estuary.

A spokesman said: ‘He is delighted that a distinguished figure like Lord Foster agrees that the answer to Britain’s aviation needs lie in the [Thames] estuary.’

Huge: Foster and Partners artist impression of the Thames Hub, a four-runway Thames Estuary airport capable of handling 150 million passengers a year

Danger: Medway Council say mixing the Liquefied Natural Gas import facility on the Isle of Grain, pictured, with a new airport would be a recipe for disaster

Lethal: The liquid gas for the area comes via the container port at the Isle of Grain, which protesters also say makes the area the wrong choice for an airport

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