Has Davies an 'eggs in one basket' airports plan?

At 09:00 each morning, the two giants of American aviation, United and American Airlines, fly from Birmingham across the pond

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

That was the warning with which Birmingham Airport's managers campaigned, shoulder-to-shoulder with their Gatwick counterparts, for an extra runway for the Sussex airport plus, a system of other major airports around Britain.

The Gatwick option, though not ruled out by Sir Howard Davies's Commission, definitely plays second fiddle to his controversial vision of an even bigger Heathrow, complete with third runway, competing more strongly with the Schiphols, De Gaulles and Frankfurts.

His principal concern for regions like ours is to improve our air links not with the world but with "Planet Heathrow".

That way, fewer of us would need to connect through those rival European gateways.

The Midlands is the only British region enjoying a trade surplus with China: Birmingham is the only British airport outside London with direct flights of any kind to Beijing.

No other region outside London does more business with the US. At 09:00 each morning, the two giants of American aviation, United and American Airlines, have flights setting off from Birmingham across the pond.

Paul Kehoe, chief executive of Birmingham Airport, is urging ministers to think long and hard before implementing recommendations

You would never guess any of this from the Davies report.

Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport's chief executive, is urging ministers to think long and hard before implementing recommendations which he believes run counter to their oft-repeated pledge to rebalance the economy away from the over-heated capital and to devolve political and spending power so that our government and politics can be decentralised.

By the time Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin got to his feet in the Commons to make his statement promising a government decision before the end of the year, a succession of predominantly Conservative MPs had already lined up to pick the Davies proposals apart.

We had even heard suggestions a Downing Street source had said of Davies: "It just won't happen".

So how significant was it, I wondered, that Mr McLoughlin went out of his way during his statement to list Birmingham and Manchester among major British airports that will make big contributions to British aviation?

He and his cabinet colleagues can expect to come under sustained pressure from local business leaders to offer tax breaks, such as an exemption from Air Passenger Duty, for long-haul airlines launching new routes from those regional gateways of which Mr McLoughlin himself is such an admirer.