Sir Howard Davies promises airports shortlist in December The former Financial Services Authority chairman, who now heads the government-backed Airports Commission, has promised a short-list of "credible" options by the end of the year. The Commission, which won't deliver its final conclusions until 2015, yesterday published all of the recommendations it has received to solve Britain's aviation capacity crisis in the long-term, which ranged from fresh proposals for a third runway at Heathrow, to the slightly more unusual suggestion of a "drive through" airport. Sir Howard said of the all of the submissions received, 25 suggested adding runways at existing airports or building a new hub. "I don't think we can wisely let 25 different proposals sit on the table which are bound to worry people who are of course near by," Sir Howard said. I think it's incumbent on us to narrow that down to a handful in December in our interim report and then we'll do the detailed environmental and cost benefit work that you need to do to decide which of them is really the best runner. Also among the long-term proposals published yesterday was London Mayor Boris Johnson's plan for a four-runway hub airport on the Isle of Grain in the inner Thames Estuary. The Mayor's submissions shows £96bn of Government funding would be required to enact the scheme, which would also involve the closure of Heathrow and creating a new London borough to the west of the capital. However, the scheme's architects believe the ultimate net cost to the taxpayer would be £25bn as the airport, once constructed, could be sold to private investors, floated on the stock market or leased to a private sector operator.