Mr Johnson is at it again stirring up business leaders over his futile plan to spend £70 billion we simply don't have as a nation to build a floating 'pie in the sea' airport in the middle of the Thames Estuary ... or maybe on the Kent or Essex coast.
The Ayatollah of City Hall, Southwark says Londoners won't accept more flights over the capital.
Tough, Mr Mayor!
Nor do the people of the estuary - Medway, Kent and Essex.
If Londoners think they can offload their transport problems onto the the estuarine marshes, and wipe out a few hunbdred homes in the process think again.
If they don't want millions of planes transforming their countryside into a concrete, aviation fuel and tarmacadam'd plane, train and car park so overseas travellers have an alternative route to swap aircraft, neither do we.
Yes, I know Heathrow is at capacity, and yes, I have groaned when my plane has joined a late night stack over Slough.
What is in it for Kent, Essex or Medway?
Jobs? - certainly. Most will be low grade, manual or catering tasks.
Transport improvements? - Definitely. Park and rides to massive car parks, high speed trains zooming through our countryside unable to stop as they descend on the airport or the capital. Oh, and planes.
At what cost? - pollution. Unquestionably. It's bad enough having power stations. Think of the incinerators needed to burn the rubbish from 1,000-plus flights a day. Or consider the joy of breathing air full of aviation fuel.
Land grab? - what do you think. If the airport is built on Boris Island, it will need new highways, service roads, railways, coach stations, bus services (operated by the new Boris Routemasters, perhaps?), aircraft maintenance facilities, restaurants, car parks, security terminals, immigrant reception areas, rapid dog holding pens... that's just for starters.
Easyjet has found the alternative - by looking around. There are plenty of existing airports with spare capacity. Southend will be flying their planes from next April on 10 different routes, linked to London in 44 minutes by a train service that already calls at the airport.
Kent has one. It's Manston, and we are told the community is crying out for it to be developed. All it needs is a couple of billion pounds (probably less) to provide the high speed rail links and terminal buildings. Boris seems to have the cash to spare to judge from his continual claims.
If we have to have hub airports, then Manston is ideal. It would leave Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted to meet the exclusive needs of in- and out-bound flights to London and the surrounding counties.
That would solve a lot of problems and objections, create jobs where they are needed, and provide the extra capacity that the airlines seem to need.
Think outside your box, Boris.
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