The Government ought to consider investing in an enlarged Birmingham Airport in preparation for an increase in business once HS2 opens, according to Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill, who is urging Prime Minister Theresa May to look at a bigger Birmingham Airport as a solution to the “over-crowded aviation sector in London and the South East”.

The airport will be around 40 minutes from the capital once the £50 billion high-speed rail line is operational possibly around 2026, making it an important travel option for people in the London area. It can currently take longer on the underground to get to Heathrow from some parts of London, Lord O’Neill said.

His intervention is considered timely as regional business groups have recently called on the Government to make clear its plans on public infrastructure development.

Birmingham would “seemingly offer a viable alternative to Heathrow and Gatwick”, he said. “It currently has unused capacity, although volumes are growing, and has seen month-on-month growth for over a year.”

Its recently extended runway now means the airport can offer carriers direct routes that were potentially unavailable before, such as the West Coast of the USA or China.

Such a move would also bring welcome investment into the airport in terms of jobs. However, its credibility has received a number of set-backs this year as first Chinese routes were cancelled and then American Airlines said that it is to drop its service to New York JFK from January.

Concerning the latter decision, Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “We regret that Birmingham is losing this service. It has been invaluable to the business community. We do understand that trans-Atlantic air services are particularly competitive, while terrorism activities in Europe and the strength of the pound against the dollar have deterred Americans from travelling.

“It does underline how fragile some of the amenities we enjoy in the Greater Birmingham region can be. It is incumbent on us to use them — if we don’t, we will lose them.”