provisional clearance<\/a> for the \u00a32.2 billion expansion project in February, subject to further consultation on issues such as aircraft noise and increasing the percentage of passengers using public transport to get to Gatwick.<\/p>\nUK transport secretary Heidi Alexander has now granted \u201cdevelopment consent\u201d to the scheme, which will see Gatwick\u00a0convert its Northern Runway, currently only used for taxiing aircraft, into a fully operational runway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith capacity constraints holding back business, trade and tourism, this is a no-brainer for growth,\u201d said a government spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government has taken unprecedented steps to get this done, navigating a needlessly complex planning system, which our reforms will simplify in future. It is possible that planes could be taking off from a new full runway at Gatwick before the next general election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart Wingate,\u00a0UK managing director for Gatwick\u2019s owner VINCI Airports, welcomed the government\u2019s decision \u201cahead of the expected deadline\u201d of 27 October.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is another important gateway in the planning process for this \u00a32.2 billion investment, which is fully funded by our shareholders and will unlock significant growth, tourism and trade benefits for London Gatwick, and the UK and create thousands of jobs,\u201d added Wingate, who was previously Gatwick\u2019s CEO before his promotion earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019ve said previously, it is essential that any planning conditions enable us to realise the full benefits of the project and do not impose unnecessary constraints that make it uneconomic to invest in. We now need to carefully examine the details of the planning consent. Once we have done that, we will be able to comment further.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gatwick is Europe’s busiest single-runway airport with annual traffic of more than 40 million passengers per year. The conversion of its Northern Runway would allow it to serve up to 75 million annually by the late 2030s.<\/p>\n
But the plan is likely to face legal hurdles, with local community and environment group CAGNE vowing to launch a judicial review against Gatwick\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know this government cares little for the environmental impact aviation is having on our planet and Gatwick\u2019s neighbours, but not to demand that Gatwick pays for the infrastructure, the onsite wastewater treatment plant and noise impact is unlawful in our book,\u201d said CAGNE in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK government has given approval to London Gatwick Airport\u2019s plans to operate a second runway. The Sussex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[13133,2000,299,5187,13134,13135],"class_list":{"0":"post-443038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-air-travel","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-rss-everything-choose","13":"tag-rss2"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115247418326220621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}