With the Airports Commission about to launch its twelve week consultation in to the short listed options for how the UK can maintain its status as an international hub, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye has warned that Britain could lose its crown as home to the biggest airport for international traffic in Europe to Holland, within the next ten years. As one of only a handful of hub airports in the world, London competes with Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam for the transfer traffic which makes daily direct, long-haul routes to emerging markets – predicted to make up nearly half of global GDP by 2050 – viable.