Gatwick airport to push for 2nd runway – opponents say scheme has repeatedly been found impracticable

Date added: 17 October, 2012

Gatwick has declared its intent to push for a 2nd 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 Heathrow. 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 Davies Commission – with a view to getting the go-ahead after the next election. The airport says a 2nd runway would increase capacity to 70 million passengers a year (it handled around 33 million in 2011) and would also mean the construction of a third terminal building. Campaigners warned they would “fight tooth and nail” against any proposal. Brendon Sewill of GACC said: “The option they have got does not make for a good airport, with no proper space for planes and a new terminal between them [the runways] – unless they’re demolishing part of Crawley. We are totally opposed on environmental grounds. I don’t believe a new runway will be built until Stansted is full, but it’s a long way off. They’re putting their hat in the ring. They’ve said they want to sell the airport in 2018 so our guess is that they’re aiming to keep the price up for when they sell it rather than building a runway.”

Press release 17 October 2012 – from GACC (Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign)

Gatwick runway impracticable

17.10.2012

Gatwick Airport Ltd have put out a press release to say that they will be examining the options for a new runway at Gatwick. In response, Brendon Sewill, chairman of GACC, said: ‘We have always been totally opposed to a new runway on environmental grounds, and have had massive support from across Surrey, Sussex and west Kent. We have been supported by all the local MPs and all the County, District and Parish Councils in a wide area. If necessary, we will resume the battle.‘

In fact all the options for a new runway have been examined many times before (1953, 1970, 1993 and 2003) and have always been found impracticable.

The line of the runway shown in the 2012 Master Plan (as referred to in the GAL press release, and for which land is at present safeguarded) is too close to the existing runway to allow a new terminal and space for aircraft to manoeuvre on the ground. That was the view of British Airways.[1]

There is high ground at the western end and the main railway line at the eastern end, so the runway would have to be short.

The runway would be only a few hundred yards north of Crawley residential areas.

More generally the expansion of aviation is largely due to the fact that aviation fuel is untaxed and air tickets are not subject to VAT (air passenger duty is small by comparison).

And the sort of expansion which would require new runways would be ruled out by the UK’s climate change targets.

So we are doubtful whether any new runway will be required in the South East.

GAL have said they wish to sell Gatwick in around 2018, so they obviously wish to keep the price up by keeping the runway issue open.

But if there were any serious plan for a new runway, GACC would mount a massive campaign of opposition.

GACC website. www.gacc.org.uk

[1] Response to Government consultation on new runways 2003

From the Evening Standard article on 17.10.2012 at

Gatwick flies into airport debate with plans for second runway

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/gatwick-flies-into-airport-debate-with-plans-for-second-runway-8214948.html

Gatwick airport to push for second runway

Sussex airport throws its hat into ring as government commission prepares to consider options for increasing capacity

by Gwyn Topham, transport correspondent (Guardian )

17 October 2012

A second runway would increase Gatwick’s capacity to 70 million passengers a year. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

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.”

He said facilities would be ready next year for the larger Airbus A380 planes, while Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which make more long-haul destinations feasible, were coming to the airport soon.

Gatwick is committed to the agreement that prohibits physical construction of any new runway before August 2019, but will try to formulate detailed plans and secure planning permission as soon as possible.

Land has been safeguarded for construction to the south of the runway, where some houses exist among 17 listed buildings, although there are no large residential areas comparable with Sipson, the village threatened by Heathrow expansion.

Gatwick will be doing detailed work on environmental impacts such as noise and air quality. While fewer people are directly affected by noise than under the Heathrow flight path, an expanded airport is likely to prompt calls for greater controls and curfews.

The airport had always previously officially denied it had plans for expansion, despite publishing a “masterplan” in July this year that broached the option of a second runway in the next decade.

Wingate said: “We think we’re bringing this option to the table in a timely and proper manner. We have said to [local opposition groups] that if we are to start detailed work then they will be amongst the first to know. That’s why we are coming out and saying it.”

Brendon Sewill of GACC, the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, said: “The option they have got does not make for a good airport, with no proper space for planes and a new terminal between them [the runways] – unless they’re demolishing part of Crawley.

“We are totally opposed on environmental grounds. I don’t believe a new runway will be built until Stansted is full, but it’s a long way off.”

“They’re putting their hat in the ring. They’ve said they want to sell the airport in 2018 so our guess is that they’re aiming to keep the price up for when they sell it rather than building a runway.”

Airline industry sources also questioned whether the intent was to elevate the airport’s value ahead of a sale.

John Stewart of Airport Watch said: “The local community will fight this proposal tooth and nail. It will be very difficult to get a new runway built anywhere in London and the south-east in this day and age given the level of local opposition that can be expected.”

A spokesman for the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “There is absolutely no point in simply scattering new runways randomly around the south-east. What this country urgently requires is a hub airport with several runways.”

Heathrow, likewise, said Gatwick’s new runway would not solve the issue of hub capacity. A spokesman said: “The UK is not short of point-to-point capacity provided by airports like Gatwick. What the UK is short of is hub airport capacity … the only way to support the frequent and direct long-haul routes that are vital to business and trade.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/17/gatwick-airport-second-runway?CMP=t%20wt_gu

AirportWatch comment on Gatwick plans for new runway

AirportWatch Communications Director Susan Pearson said:

“Strong opposition to any new runways will be inevitable – as the last Government found out.

“The experience of the last ten years shows there will be opposition from all the large environmental organisations across the country because of the climate change implications – more flights will scupper any chance chance of fulfilling our climate change targets.

“And there will always be local opposition – because of the increase in misery for those living under flight paths.

“Despite the aviation industry’s frantic marketing campaign, there is currently no urgent need to take decisions about airport capacity. The Government’s own figures show the UK has enough airport capacity until almost 2030. The Government must take its time and ensure future capacity needs are based on hard evidence, not on the continual lobbying of the aviation industry.”

Gatwick Airport Planning Second Runway

Gatwick Airport studies options to build a second runway, which it claims will replace the need for a third runway at Heathrow.

17.10.2012 (Sky News)

Gatwick Airport bosses have started to draw up detailed options for a new runway which could help resolve the UK’s air capacity crisis.

But Gatwick said it would honour a 1979 legal agreement that states no runway can be built at the West Sussex airport before 2019.

The options, to be submitted to a Government-appointed aviation commission, will assess the environmental and economic impacts of a new runway.

The chief executive of Gatwick, which serves 197 destinations and handles around 34 million passengers a year, said a new runway would benefit passengers.

“I believe a new runway at Gatwick could be affordable, practical and give passengers a greater choice of routes to key markets,” Stewart Wingate said.

“We have the space, capability and access to financial resources.”

London’s busiest airport, Heathrow, is operating close to full capacity after the Government blocked a third runway because of the resulting increase in planes flying over the city.

Mr Wingate said a new runway at Gatwick had “clear practical advantages” over expansion at Heathrow.

“When compared with a third runway at Heathrow, we would have a significantly lower environmental impact whilst adding significantly more capacity,” he said.

He added that it would also be preferable to other London alternatives.

“Stansted is half empty today, we already have much better surface transport links and feel our business case will be much stronger,” he said.

“As for the Estuary airport concepts, there are major questions on affordability, environmental issues and whether they are deliverable.”

But the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign has always been opposed to a second runway at the airport on environmental grounds.

“We have had massive support from across Surrey, Sussex and west Kent,” Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign’s chairman, Brendon Sewill, said following the announcement.

“We have been supported by all the local MPs and all the county, district and parish councils in a wide area.

“If necessary, we will resume the battle.”

Gatwick has safeguarded the land that would be required for a new runway since it was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners in 2009.

It estimates that for the rest of this decade, London’s airports will be relying on their existing physical capacity.

As such, its submission to the commission will evaluate how the capacity of its existing runway can be maximised.

It will also argue that a second runway would help ensure that London’s airports provide the South East and the rest of UK with the connectivity needed in the future.

The commission, led by the former head of the Financial Services Authority Sir Howard Davies, will make its full report into the South East’s airport capacity in 2015.

http://news.sky.com/story/998793/gatwick-airport-planning-second-runway

Charlwood Parish Council has the support of Surrey County Council & Mole Valley District Council in their opposition to a 2nd Gatwick runway

Earlier:

Surrey County Council rejects new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick

Date added: October 16, 2012

Conservative-led Surrey County Council have rejected plans to build more runways at Heathrow and Gatwick, due to their concerns about the impact on the environment. It will write to the transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, to say it is against airport expansion. Council leader David Hodge said SCC opposed any plans to build additional runways “out of line with the existing county council policy”. SCC had a policy agreed in March 2008 opposing expansion unless there was “comprehensive and creditable investment” satisfactorily addressing environmental issues. Lib Dem councillors said the airports have reached their limit. They want alternatives elsewhere to increase in UK airport capacity. Opposition leader Hazel Watson said increased capacity at Gatwick would lead to the loss of “precious countryside” and “irreplaceable historic buildings”.

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