Britain's biggest airports operator, BAA, has urged the government to build up to three new runways in the London area over the next 30 years to avoid major 'damage' to the country's competitiveness.
'We can't afford to see in aviation the problems we have today on our railways,' BAA chief executive designate Mike Clasper said in a statement, referring to decades of under investment in the country's railway infrastructure.
BAA said there were four options from which the government should choose, all of them involving a BAA-owned London airport - a runway for shorthaul flights at Heathrow, the world's busiest international gateway; a second runway at Gatwick and two more runways at Stansted.
The government set out options in July last year to build more runways to cope with an estimated tripling in demand for air travel by 2030. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling is expected to make a decision on the options later this year.
BAA said a prompt decision was needed on the first site for additional runway capacity in southeast England and land should be safeguarded at two other sites for future runways.
