Gatwick planning to bring second runway back into use
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 25 Aug 2021
(Sharecast News) - The UK's second-busiest airport announced plans to bring its second runway back into use on Wednesday, with a public consultation to start on 9 September.
Gatwick Airport in West Sussex technically has two parallel east-west runways, but due to the proximity of them to each other, only one is in use as a runway with the other a taxiway.
Until 2017, the airport held the title of the world's busiest single-runway airport.
The airport, majority-owned by French conglomerate Vinci, confirmed plans to bring its existing northern runway into routine use alongside the main runway on Wednesday, claiming that the move would generate around 18,400 additional jobs by 2038, and an additional expected £1.5bn gross value added to the region.
It said that while passenger numbers were still depressed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was taking its plans for growth forward now as it still expected to be capacity constrained in the time it would take to secure approvals, complete construction and start operations.
The proposed plans would allow the airport's northern runway to be brought into routine use for departing aircraft, by repositioning its centre line further north by 12 metres.
That, the airport said, would enable dual runway operations with the existing main runway, while meeting all international safety standards.
The plans would add resilience to Gatwick's operations by reducing delays and congestion, as well as bring new global connections and allow an increase in passenger capacity to around 75 million passengers per year by 2038.
In 2019, the airport handled just almost 47 million passengers between its two terminals and single runway.
Other elements of the proposals included improved airport access, highway improvements, and additional landscape and ecological planting and environmental mitigation.
The project proposals were described as "low impact" by Gatwick Airport Limited, and were in line with UK government policy of making the best use of existing runways.
As the proposed plans were considered a 'Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project', the airport said it was planning to apply for a development consent order (DCO) to build and operate the scheme.
Before the application is submitted, Gatwick said it would run a 12-week public consultation from 9 September to 1 December.
"While we are currently experiencing low passenger and air traffic volumes due to the global pandemic, we are confident that Gatwick will not only fully recover to previous passenger levels, but has the potential to continue to grow back into one of Europe's premier airports," said chief executive officer Stewart Wingate.
"Our plans to bring our existing northern runway into routine use will not only help to secure that growth but will also ensure many thousands of additional jobs and a vital boost to the economy for our local region.
"Aside from the economic benefits our plans will have, we remain committed to our sustainability goals, and our northern runway plans are designed to be a low impact way of unlocking new capacity from our existing infrastructure, much of which is already in place."
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