Ministers must approve airport expansion plans or miss out on growth, the boss of Gatwick airport has warned.
In an article for The Independent, chief executive Stewart Wingate writes: “London’s airports are already reaching capacity and demand is forecast to grow by more than 30 million passengers by 2030. We are already full at peak times.”
The Gatwick CEO is seeking approval from the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, to bring his airport’s standby runway into permanent use.
Mr Wingate echoes comments from his opposite number at Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye. At the AirlinesUK conference last month, Heathrow’s chief executive said the much-postponed plan to build a third runway was contingent on government support.
Mr Woldbye said: “This would be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in UK history, so we have to ask government, are you along for the journey? If not, we forget it.”
Read more: 14,000 jobs and £1 billion boost to the economy – why Gatwick Airport needs a second runway
In 2015, the Davies Commission recommended a third runway for Heathrow to the north of the existing pair, increasing capacity by about 50 per cent to more than 2,000 movements per day.
But a combination of the Covid pandemic, political turmoil and a prime minister – Boris Johnson – who had vowed to “lie down in front of the bulldozers” to stop expansion at Heathrow stalled plans.
More airline passengers fly in and out of London than any other city in the world. But no full-length runway has been built to serve the capital since the Second World War.
Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
Heathrow has been effectively full for many years, with precious take-off and landing slots traded between airlines for tens of millions of pounds. The airport expects to handle a record 84 million passengers this year. But the increase is due to larger aircraft and fewer empty seats – not extra flights.
Gatwick has little room for growth during the summer, when it is at its busiest.
“Unless we can access greater airport capacity, the UK will miss out on the economic growth that comes from increased trade, tourism and travel,” Mr Wingate writes.
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