Boris Johnson has hit out at the government’s aviation strategy, describing as "glacial" the government’s approach to current challenges.

The London mayor warned the government was heading for "economic catastrophe."

Addressing business leaders at City Hall on Thursday, Mr Johnson told his audience that London was in danger of getting left behind.

"We don’t have a snowball’s chance in Hades of meeting the global economic challenges with our current aviation strategy," he said.

"No other European city is being so blind and so complacent on aviation."

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The mayor described Heathrow as "failing" and called plans to build a third runway at the airport as the "biggest most complacent delusion of all.

"I say forget it! The third runway will not be built."

He told the audience at City Hall he believed a third runway could not conceivably be put in place until 2027 at the earliest, calling the project a "miserable and protracted battle to impose an environmental and political disaster that will be obsolete by the time that it’s in place."

He said he was "forced" to "accelerate the work I will do to develop a credible solution."

Mr Johnson said he would outline details of three potential, alternative airports in a strategy which includes expanding Stansted and utilising two other options in the Thames Estuary.

"The government programme to address the looming aviation capacity crunch is far too slow, and I am hugely concerned that their intended timetable sets a course for economic catastrophe. The continued inertia is being fully exploited by our European rivals who already possess mega hub airports that they intend to use to erode our advantage,"he warned.

(IT/GK)