Boris Island in the Thames is going to deliver tens of millions of pounds for the Dundee economy and create more than a thousand jobs.
Well it will if you believe a new Transport for London (TfL) commissioned report which sets out the economic case for a new four-runway airport hub in London as envisaged by London Mayor Boris Johnson.
And it won’t just be Dundee that benefits Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow will all get a slice of the not inconsiderable economic pie offered up by improved air connections to the UK capital.
To be clear I don’t think I would have a job if I tried to argue that better links from Scotland to a global economic powerhouse like London were a bad thing.
But having read the TfL report I would suggest that no one hold their breath in anticipation of piles of cash suddenly finding their way into coffers of cities north (or south) of the border.
The report is simply an attempt to turn up the heat in the politically charged atmosphere in London as Sir Howard Davies’ Airports Commission closes in on a decision about how the capital’s air infrastructure should best be developed.
Boris has long advocated the creation of a new airport hub in the Thames Estuary.
In 2008, he threw his weight behind the Shivering Sands proposal and it was instantly crowned Boris Island.
By last summer, the mayor submitted three separate air expansion proposals to the Airports Commission with further meat on the bones of two separate plans for the inner and outer Thames Estuary and a third option of an extension to Stansted.
But it seems that the frontrunner remains the addition of a third runway at Heathrow a “monstrous” development that Boris has long set his face against.
So it really is no surprise that, as crunch time approaches, last-ditch attempts are being made to justify the case for one of the three options favoured by the mayor.
The TfL report is clever in that it attempts to demonstrate that a new London hub is not just for the benefit of Londoners it is good for the country as a whole with 15 new or enhanced city connections planned.
Who could fail to be dazzled by predictions of a £2.2 billion boost to the UK economy and 18,000 new jobs?
But it is quite likely that Boris’s proposals may never get off the ground and, even if they do, I remain sceptical about the promised riches for Dundee ever being delivered upon.
The report suggests that an extra six flights a day would connect Dundee with the capital and more than 370,000 passengers would be carried on the route per annum.
Just one of the problems with that vision is that Dundee Airport does not currently accommodate 100 seat aircraft the size of plane on which TfL’s calculations are predicated.
Even if that issue could be overcome and at Dundee’s Economic Summit earlier in the month there was an oblique reference to new technology that would allow larger planes to take off and land at Dundee Airport without the runway being
extended the numbers appear a little woolly.
For example, the majority of jobs being offered up for the city in the TfL report are not as a direct result of expansion at Dundee Airport to cope with more flights.
They are instead indirect roles jobs in financial services and IT and other areas which the TfL report authors believe will transpire if a more regular air link to London should be established. In other words, there are no guarantees.
In summary, I understand why the report exists and I applaud the fact that the UK regions are being considered at all in masterplanning for the future of the UK capital.
But I don’t expect it to make a great deal of difference to the lives of people in Tayside and Fife any time soon.