Britain’s second-busiest airport, London Gatwick, is pushing ahead with plans to become a two-runway airport by the end of the decade – despite environmental concerns about the project.
The project involves bringing the standby runway into use for departures alongside the main runway – which is currently the busiest in the world for take-offs and landings. It would increase annual capacity from 281,000 movements to 386,000 – a 37 per cent increase, and just 20 per cent shy of current take-offs and landings at Heathrow.
The Sussex airport has formally submitted an application – known as a Development Consent Order (DCO) – to the Planning Inspectorate for permission to shift the current standby runway by 12 metres to the north.
This will provide sufficient separation from the main runway to allow take-offs of medium-sized passenger jets such as easyJet’s and Wizz Air’s Airbus A320s, plus Ryanair’s Boeing 737s. The plan would also involve an extension of the South and North Terminals and improving ground links.
The airport’s chief executive, Stewart Wingate, said the plans would “help secure the long-term future of the airport” and provide a £1bn annual economic boost for the South East England region.
“If approved, our plan will also improve airport resilience, meet future passenger demand, and increase competition in the London airport market, by providing vital new international connections to support ‘Global Britain’, he said.
“The consultation and engagement activity over the past two years has been hugely valuable in shaping our plans to ensure they best meet the needs and requirements of local people, as well as our airlines, passengers and other stakeholders.
“We are confident that our plans are both economically and environmentally robust.”
The project is expected to cost around £500m – a fraction of the proposed third runway at Heathrow. The controversial expansion plans for Heathrow’s additional runway involve taking over a significant amount of residential property, which the Gatwick project does not.
But opponents to Gatwick’s proposals say they “fly in the face of the climate emergency”.
When the consultaton opened, a calculation from the Green Party estimated that the plans could result in an extra 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 being emitted each year. The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas…
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