GATWICK has made a last-ditch push to win the race to be chosen for the United Kingdom runway expansion.
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The Airport Commission is now considering three options, including the building of a third runway at Heathrow, extending an existing runway at Heathrow and construction of a new second runway at Gatwick Airport.
It also commissioned a more detailed study – the York Aviation Report – which again confirmed Heathrow as a critical hub for air cargo and underlined that a failure to invest in new runway capacity would result in a loss of connectivity and transfer of services to competitor airports on the continent.
Earlier this year, Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA) chiefs welcomed an independent national report backing a third Heathrow runway – and specific slots for Durham Tees Valley Airport from a global hub.
The government is then expected to respond to the Commission’s recommendation later this year. Heathrow can not deliver that.
“Our plans are simpler, cheaper, faster and quieter while also helping create a more competitive network of United Kingdom airports that every passenger can benefit from”.
Senior Conservative politicians, several of whom have constituencies that would be affected by Heathrow expanding, have publicly opposed any plans involving Heathrow.
It’s this kind of publicity that leads anti-Gatwick campaigners like Crispian Blunt to fear their cause will not be heard. “The whole objective of this commission was…to make a decision on the merits”.
MPs and Lords have been bombarded with requests to back either side, with Westminster underground station plastered with adverts from both campaigns over the last six months. Two of Heathrow’s 11 air monitors breached limits in 2014; the airport blamed a nearby motorway.
“We’re a decade ahead of the numbers underpinning the Airports Commission’s work”, he said.
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New images of Gatwick’s expansion plans have been unveiled with architect Sir Terry Farrell claiming: “It’s not just a second runway, it’s a brand new airport”. “A second runway would turbocharge economic growth in the south-east and do for south London was the Olympics did for east London”.
