Engineers at Beckett Rankine unveiled plans for a £39billion airport off the east Kent coast on Goodwin Sands

by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Plans for a hub airport on the Goodwin Sands have been promoted in France as a great way of boosting the cross-Channel economy and forging closer links between Kent and northern France.

Representatives of maritime engineering firm Beckett Rankine were in Calais on Friday to explain the thinking behind the £39 billion proposal for the east Kent coast.

It is competing for government support with the Mayor of London's controversial ideas for an estuary airport off Medway or a land-based alternative on the Isle of Grain. All schemes are being considered by the Davies review of airport capacity in the south east due to report in 2015.

The latest proposal is for an airport on the Goodwin Sands 3km east of the Kent coast and 30km north-west of Calais.

"Goodwin Airport" would be connected directly to the Channel Tunnel, providing a fast connection to Calais and the European high speed rail network. There would also be a 40-minute high-speed rail connection to London, road access via the A2 and M20, and ferry services that already serve Dover, Ramsgate, Calais and Dunkirk.

Beckett Rankine director Tim Beckett (pictured right) said: "While much of the airport debate has been dictated by local political issues the time is now right for the nation to take a broader view and to consider the wider benefits that a new hub airport can deliver, if it is built in the right location.

"Goodwin Airport, with its close proximity to France and the Channel Tunnel, has the unique potential to bring economic growth and regeneration to both sides of the English Channel.

"Goodwin Airport would be a flagship for cross-border co-operation and integration. It would also give northern Europe the best hub airport in the world."

He added: "Current proposals for a new airport in the Thames estuary have encountered equal resistance from environmentalists and local residents.

"Locating an airport at Goodwin will have the least environmental impact of any option. It is the most sustainable solution available. The economic benefit of the airport will therefore spread well beyond east Kent to northern France and Belgium."

The Mayor of London's aviation adviser Daniel Moylan said the proposal was a welcome contribution to the national debate.

"The arguments for the construction of a new hub airport in the UK are overwhelming and this proposal offers one option of how to build it. We now urgently need to recognise that a new hub airport is the answer to our aviation capacity problems and press ahead with considering the best way to deliver that airport."