Heathrow Hub, an integrated air and rail facility which would nearly double slot capacity at Heathrow while also mitigating noise and environmental concerns and proposed in a Centre for Policy Studies paper “Double Up On Heathrow“, has won backing from star banker Ian Hannam.
Ian Hannam has given his personal financial backing to Heathrow Hub, an innovative proposal currently being considered by the UK Airports Commission to double Heathrow’s capacity and connect it to the national rail network, while also adopting major noise mitigation strategies.
Mr Hannam has bought stakes in Runway Innovations Ltd and Heathrow Hub Ltd, the two companies promoting the integrated Heathrow Hub plan.
Mr Hannam began his career as an engineer, taking a BSc in engineering at Imperial College and going on to work as a project engineer at Taylor Woodrow and qualifying as a Chartered Engineer. Last year, he acquired Mansfelder Kupfer und Messing (MKM), a German copper fabricator, which employs some 1,100 people.
Mr Hannam said: “Like my investment in MKM, Heathrow Hub takes me back to my engineering roots. I am a citizen of London and I have made an essentially risk-based investment which I see as an opportunity to try and give something back to the city where I have lived, studied and worked for nearly all my life.
“In the last 30 years, London has grown into a truly global centre for finance, industry, culture and diplomacy and this has brought massive benefits to the whole country. If we are going to maintain that competitive position for the whole of Britain, there is obviously an urgent requirement to invest in aviation capacity and I am convinced that expanding Heathrow is the only realistic option on the table. But it needs to be done cleverly and sensitively, adopting serious noise mitigation strategies. Heathrow Hub is an absolutely brilliant solution. Everybody I have shown it to has been inspired. I believe it is also the proposal which best meets the remit of the Airports Commission and I hope that they will include it in their short list when it is published.”
Notes to editors
Heathrow Hub envisages building an integrated transport hub on available land two miles to the north of the current Heathrow site, where new passenger facilities will be built allowing the airport to be connected to Crossrail, the Great Western Main Line and potentially a re-routed HS2. The two existing runways at Heathrow would then be extended, to create four independent ones. During early morning arrivals, the touch down point would be moved approximately 2 miles to the West, thereby reducing the noise impact of Heathrow for households in West London. Heathrow Hub is also consulting on using modern aircrafts’ abilities to adopt steeper, two stage descents and steeper climb-outs which would further reduce noise.
Heathrow Hub has received technical design and masterplanning advice in all aspects of airport expansion and redevelopment from a professional consultant team led by global engineering, construction and technical services company URS. Heathrow Hub’s plans, including its submissions to the Airports Commission and an influential report published by the Centre for Policy Studies, can be seen here http://heathrowhub.com/.
The backers of Heathrow Hub include Captain William “Jock” Lowe, Concorde’s longest serving pilot and ex General Manager Operations Control of British Airways; and Mark Bostock, a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a former director of Ove Arup & Partners who was a driving force behind the design and construction of HS1.
Ian Hannam, a former chairman of global capital markets at JP Morgan, is now majority owner of Strand Partners, an advisory firm. In addition to Heathrow Hub and MKM, he is also a backer of Centaur, an Asian minerals business. He is currently a governor of London Business School where he took an MBA, MSc (Econ) in 1984. He qualified as Chartered Civil Engineer in 1982 (MICE, CEngl, FEANI); and was awarded a BSc (Eng), ACGI at Imperial College, London in 1977.
Reports:
Daily Telegraph: Star banker Ian Hannam backs Heathrow Hub scheme
City A.M.: Veteran dealmaker Hannam backs Heathrow Hub expansion
The Times: A man to help Heathrow fly (£)
Date Added: Wednesday 11th September 2013
