It seems that the fiasco of Heathrow's Terminal 5 opening earlier this year was really just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

Heathrow, a "national disgrace," according to some of its officials, finds itself in the crosshairs of London's Lord Mayor Boris Johnson, who has a team at city hall preparing plans to build a new major airport closer to the city that would close Heathrow for good.

You're thinking: He must be joking.

He's not.

Heathrow has been something of a punch line for years now, especially in the UK, where it's known for its abysmal lines, delays and general dreariness. Now a task force is drawing up a proposal to build a new hub in nearby Kent, directly on the high speed line that links London with continental Europe. Four to six runways could be built on a tidal estuary in the Thames River, Johnson says. Passengers could get to central London in as little as 35 minutes and not much longer than that if they're heading to France.

Will this really happen? Hard to tell. We'll certainly be hearing more about this. Officials figure a new airport could be built in six years. But so far they're studying island airports such as Hong Kong's to see if it can be done. No price has been pinned to this idea yet, and one of the question marks is just how much officials are going to have to pay Heathrow owner BAA.

A few deadlines, though, seem like they'll keep this idea from simply languishing on the shelf. At the end of the year the British government is to decide whether to permit a third runway to be built at Heathrow. And, of course, you have the 2012 Olympics.

Look for short haul airlines to object to the plan: If passengers have easy ground connections to continental Europe, they're not going to need many puddle hoppers.

Filed under: Airports