Birmingham Airport has launched a bid to become a UK global hub rivalling Heathrow as debate around Britain’s future airport strategy hots up.

The airport said on Monday that once its 405m runway extension expanding long haul capacity is complete in 2014 it will be able to handle 27M passengers a year and create an immediate short term solution to meet the country’s flight demands. The long term vision is for another runway and capacity of 70M passengers a year, comparable to Heathrow in size. Development of HS2 will put the airport within one hour of 45M people by 2032, the airport said.

“We believe the best thing for UK aviation is to create a network of long haul national airports each supporting the comparative economic advantages of that region to boost trade, foreign investment and tourism,” said Birmingham Airport chief executive Paul Kehoe. He said London, Birmingham and Manchester should all have the long haul airports that the regions need to succeed economically while at the same time providing flexibility and resilience for the UK aviation sector.

The network proposal excludes expansion at Heathrow because that would expose too many people living in West London to unacceptable noise pollution, the Birmingham Airport proposal said. However the network idea complements a new mega-hub in the south east or a more dispersed model, the plan suggested.

Over the next 20 years annual passenger numbers will increase by 220M in the UK and plans for an additional runway at Heathrow offers capacity for only 20 million passengers the proposal claimed.

(Photo: Birmingham Airport)

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