A £25BN aviation hub can galvanise a loss-making North-East airport and be a catalyst for increased foreign investment, it has been claimed.

Bosses at Transport for London say plans to build a four-runway hub airport east of the capital city, will bolster flights at Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA), which has haemorrhaged more than 500,000 passengers and loses about £2m a year.

They say the airport, backed by London mayor, Boris Johnson, could be operating by 2030, renewing connections between DTVA and London, which were lost in 2009 when operator BMI pulled flights.

Officials say the Thames Estuary airport would rival the Schiphol hub, in Amsterdam, which is already used as gateway to Europe by DTVA, paving the way for established foreign North-East employers to forge greater regional links and unlocking growing Indian and Chinese markets.

However, the North-East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) last night backed opposing plans for a third runway at Heathrow, saying it would help increase exports and attract more foreign-owned companies, including at Wilton's chemical complex, near Redcar, where 70 per cent of firms are owned by overseas bodies.

Peel Group, which owns DTVA, are struggling to attract new flights, despite recently announcing a weekly Ibiza service from 2014, with annual passenger numbers standing at 160,000, down from around a million about five years ago.

A decision is expected next month on a £4.65m bid for Government regional growth fund cash, which, if approved, will be used to build a link road on the site.

Stephen Catchpole, managing director of Tees Valley Unlimited Local Enterprise Partnership, yesterday told a conference in Durham that DTVA was intrinsic to the area's business community.

He said: “Aviation is vital to the world's economy and DTVA has gone through a strong downturn, but it has got the Amsterdam route, which facilitates business connection and international trade.

“It is absolutely crucial to be able to say to a company that we have access to the world and back to their headquarters.

“Schiphol has more connections than Heathrow and having that Dutch hub is better than what London is offering at this time, so we have to make the best of what we have got.”

Richard De Cani, director of transport strategy and policy at Transport for London, told the conference he previously flew from Heathrow to DTVA, and believes an east London airport hub would bring back those strong links to the North-East.

He said: “We have got to look beyond London and serve the whole country's needs.

“Heathrow is failing to maximise its potential and connectivity because it is over-capacity, and a new runway is not a long-term solution.

“The UK is losing significant trade to European hub airports and this is about creating direct links and inward investment across the world, and not being a branch line.”

However, Mark Stephenson, NECC policy specialist, said increased capacity at Heathrow would benefit regional firms.

He said: “North-East airports play a vital role in providing world-class connectivity to foreign and domestic markets and they have capacity for sustainable growth as connectivity demand grows.”