Grauniad:
Gatwick airport to push for second runway
Sussex airport throws its hat into ring as government commission prepares to consider options for increasing capacity
Gatwick has declared its intent to push for a second runway and is to start drawing up detailed plans for government approval. The airport says the runway is "affordable and practical" and will allow it to compete with its bigger London rival, Heathrow, where any runway expansion has been ruled out for now.
Although an agreement prohibits any new runway opening before 2019 at Gatwick, the airport is to start detailed work on the options, to be presented to the government's Davies commission on aviation with a view to getting the go-ahead after the next election. A second runway would increase capacity to 70 million passengers a year and would also mean the construction of a third terminal building.
Campaigners warned they would "fight tooth and nail" against any proposal.
The airport's chief executive, Stewart Wingate, said he believed a new Gatwick runway was the best answer to calls for more capacity in the south-east. He said: "A third runway at Heathrow won't happen. The Thames estuary won't happen. Stansted is only half full. But Gatwick is tremendously dynamic." In the three years since Gatwick was sold by BAA, Wingate said that owners Global Infrastructure Partners had invested over £650m and set up new routes to China, Korea and Vietnam. "So we have got wind in our sails, and the time was right to start the detailed work."
The plans would eventually double the numbers of passengers at the Sussex airport, which believes its current capacity to grow from 34 million to 45 million with a single runway will see it through until the mid-2020s. The timing of the announcement will push Gatwick to the forefront of government thinking on airport expansion, with the commission led by Sir Howard Davies being assembled to give its verdict on possible new runways in 2015.
Heathrow claims there can be only one "hub" airport in Britain – an airport that supports enough connecting flights to make long-haul routes possible – but Gatwick rejects that argument. Wingate said: "We don't see the world in the same way. For us the question is: how can London connect with the rest of the world? The hub argument says you can't connect with the emerging economies – well, we've already done it."...........(more)