WYRE Forest's MP is among 30 cross-party MPs and MEPs, as well as business leaders and council chiefs from the Midlands, who have written to the editor of a national newspaper calling for Birmingham's airport to become a hub.
Conservative Mark Garnier , like his co-signatories of the letter to the Telegraph, said expanding use of Birmingham Airport could help solve Britain's airport capacity problem.
Birmingham Airport currently serves 9 million passengers every year but has spare capacity of 27 million, meaning a runway expansion would allow the airport to serve 36 million passengers a year and provide flights to locations as distant as Brazil and China, claimed Mr Garnier.
Planned expansion of Heathrow would only meet seven per cent of the UK's growing passenger needs by 2050, said the letter signatories. By building a second runway, Birmingham Airport could potentially cater for up to 60 million passengers per year and directly create 50,000 new jobs in the region, they added.
The Government's proposed high speed rail link between London and Birmingham will provide trains running at 225mph, placing Birmingham Airport only 45 minutes away from the capital - just seven minutes further than Heathrow.
Mr Garnier said: "This solution is staring us in the face and we should seize it immediately. With two infrastructure developments - a second runway and a high speed rail link - Birmingham Airport presents the most realistic, responsible and beneficial solution to the Heathrow problem that has yet been presented.
"Not only would this help ease congestion in the South East but it would help to spread wealth around the country and set up the Midlands for the expansive boom it so richly deserves.
"This would be the clearest statement that Birmingham and the West Midlands are open for international business."
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