Third Heathrow runway 'must be considered' Critics claim Mr Matthews has a vested interest because BAA is the owner of Heathrow, while it has been ordered by the Competition Commission to sell Stansted. The judgment in BAA's latest appeal against that decision could come as early as today. BAA has already been forced to offload Gatwick airport. Mr Matthews will argue, however, that while the Government dithers over new capacity, foreign airlines are "voting with their feet" by basing new flights outside of the UK, notably at Frankfurt, Paris's Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam's Schiphol airports. "Instead of Britain taking the lead in forging new links with growing economies like China, we are handing economic growth to our competitors by being forced to turn away airlines who want to bring jobs, growth and trade to the UK," he will say. Ms Greening's opposition to a third runway has its detractors within Government, with the Treasury balking at the costs of some alternatives, not least a new £50bn airport on the Thames Estuary championed by Boris Johnson, London's mayor. Whatever the potential of a new airport, however, Mr Matthews will argue that it is perverse not to include expansion of Heathrow in any credible analysis of Britain's options. "A review of aviation policy that excludes Heathrow is like a review of rugby stadiums that excludes Twickenham," he will say.