Heathrow operator BAA has dismissed the idea of a second UK international hub airport

The head of Heathrow operator BAA has dismissed the idea of a second UK international hub airport as “dreaming”.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: “People who talk of two hubs in the UK are dreaming. The challenge is to hang on to one. There are three hub airports in the region already – Amsterdam, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Heathrow.”

Matthews told a Transport Times conference on aviation strategy in London on Wednesday: “What has happened in the US is a good indication of what is going to happen in Europe. We have seen the consolidation of airlines and consolidation of hubs. Airports that were hubs are not any longer.”

The BAA boss also made a fierce defence of transfer traffic at Heathrow, which Prime Minister David Cameron has previously suggested brings little economic benefit to the UK.

Matthews said: “To fly long haul, you need aircraft that are big and they need to be full, every day and every month, and the only way that can be done is by airlines plugging into transfer traffic.”