PLANS for a £5 billion new Severnside airport, which could replace Cardiff and Bristol airports, have been submitted to the Airports Commission.

Proposals by MSP Solutions for a Severn Estuary airport between Chepstow and Newport are among a series of ideas for the future of air travel in the UK.

The creation of the proposed airport, dubbed Severn24 in a report to the commission, would see a two-runway international hub created.

Assuming a 2015 start, the construction would take an estimated five to eight years, creating 5,000 to 6,000 new construction jobs. Two new dual carriageways could be created to link the planned airport with the M4.

However, the chief executive officer of Bristol Airport, Robert Sinclair, said the idea of a Severnside Airport was dismissed back in 2003.

He said: “As the leading airport serving south-west England and South Wales, Bristol Airport already handles nearly six million passengers a year travelling to more than 100 destinations.

“The idea of a new Severnside Airport was dismissed by the Future of Air Transport White Paper back in 2003 on the basis that it would ‘struggle to attract sufficient traffic to be financially viable and would not generate sufficient economic or regeneration benefits to merit support’.”

“Given that the long-term demand forecasts on which this decision was based have since been revised downwards, it is difficult to see how a different conclusion could be drawn today.”

The application comes after the Welsh Government bought Cardiff Airport earlier in the year for £52 million.

COMMENT: Airport not in demand

THE idea of a new Severnside Airport, between between Chepstow and Newport, has been raised again.

The original idea has been floating around for more than a decade and this new plan from MSP Solutions for a £5bn Severn Estuary airport is not really very different.

There is some merit to the idea to create a two-runway international hub which would replace the existing Cardiff and Bristol airports.

The construction would take an estimated five to eight years, possibly creating 5,000 to 6,000 new construction jobs.

Two new dual carriageways could be created to link the planned airport with the M4.

So with its own links it may be more accessible than Bristol for travellers this side of the border.

And with a possibility of long-haul flights it would certainly offer more choice than Cardiff currently does.

But the application comes after the Welsh Government bought Cardiff Airport earlier in the year for £52 million.

And Bristol airport has expanded its destinations to cope with increasing demand from more than six million passengers a year.

So it is unlikely to gain any support from the other airports.

Originally rejected in 2003, it is still hard to see how this plan would ever get off the ground.