MANCHESTER Airport should be sold to fund the Metrolink extension, according to a billionaire businessman.

This would enable the contoversial plans for congestion charging to be scrapped, says John Whittaker, head of Peel Holdings, owner of the Trafford Centre.

He says the move would raise £7bn, which could be invested in the region's trams, buses and trains.

This dwarfs the £3bn in government grants and loans transport chiefs hope to get in return for charging motorists a peak-hour congestion fee of up to £5 a day.

The airport is part of Manchester Airports Group (MAG), and is owned by all 10 councils in Greater Manchester.

Manchester holds a 55 per cent stake and the other nine councils have five per cent each.

MAG - which also includes airports in Bournemouth, East Midlands and Humberside - has assets of £1.5bn and an annual turnover of £373m.

In 2006 the councils drew dividends of £25m. Mr Whittaker, whose empire includes Liverpool's John Lennon and Doncaster airports, claimed selling MAG could raise £3bn, which could unlock a further £4bn in private-sector funding. The finance would be secured against future income from upgraded public transport.

He has put forward the idea in a letter to the leaders and chief executives of all 10 councils. It has been co-signed by Andrew Simpson, Peel's managing director.

Mr Simpson stressed the proposal had been made in the `best interests' of the local economy and was not related to Peel's airports business. The letter brands the congestion charge proposals `flawed' and claims Manchester could be put at a disadvantage if it acts `as a guinea pig' for similar schemes in the rest of the country.

Extolling the idea of an airport sell-off, the letter says: "It would make the region the most competitive in the UK rather than playing Russian Roulette within the local economy by making it high-cost and uncompetitive."

Peel, a vocal opponent of congestion charging, recently commissioned an independent poll of more than 1,000 businesses in which 80 per cent said they would vote No in a referendum.

Critics said the poll failed to make it clear that the charge would be introduced only in return for the £3bn for public transport.

Roger Jones, chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, described the poll as `skewed'. Other top business leaders said there was `no sensible alternative' to congestion charging.

What do you think of the suggestion to sell the airport to fund the tram expansion instead of introducing a congestion charge? Have your say.