Gatwick would rival Heathrow with second runway

A second runway at Gatwick would hit fewer people than expanding Heathrow, the Sussex airport's boss has said.

Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick, also dismissed the prospect of a third runway at Heathrow as “unlikely” as he vowed to march onto the west London airport’s “turf” by opening up new routes to the Far East and other emerging economies.
In an interview with The Standard, he was very sceptical about the idea of a Heath-Wick “virtual hub” airport, by joining up

Gatwick and Heathrow with a fast rail link, stressing that it would be expected to cost billions. The proposals for a “Boris island” airport in the Thames Estuary faced economic, safety and access challenges, he added.

Mr Wingate, a former managing director at Stansted, emphasised that Gatwick could expand until the mid-2020s with the use of the existing runway and currently has plans for 45 million passengers a year.
Under an agreement with the local community, a second runway could not be built before 2019.
But experts believe that the Government may eventually back such a development.

“Clearly the density of population around Stansted and I’m sure it’s the same for Gatwick as well is less than the density of population around Heathrow,” Mr Wingate said.

The Civil Aviation Authority said in 2010 that a one runway Gatwick caused an ‘unacceptable’ noise impact across  a 39.6  sq/km area, in which 2850 people lived, in 1250 households around the airport.
The CAA outlined that a two runway Heathrow caused an ‘unacceptable’ noise impact  across a 112.5 sq/km area around the airport, where 245,250 people live. Gatwick Taxis

Unacceptable was described as noise exceeding 57 decibels, averaged out over a 16 hour day.
Mr Wingate expects a fierce campaign by local people to any expansion plans which created more noise around Gatwick and his current focus is firmly on modernising the airport and opening new routes to emerging economies through the use of the single runway.

“We are starting to move onto the turf that to date has been occupied by Heathrow,” he said.
“We are aiming to become London’s gateway to Asia and the emerging economies.”
Just days ago, David Cameron highlighted that Gatwick was emerging as a business airport for London to rival Heathrow.      Heathrow Taxis

Mr Wingate shies away from joining the business chorus saying that the capital’s economy is suffering due to the lack of air links to some cities, stressing that while Heathrow is virtually “full”, Gatwick is expanding.
Air China is starting daily direct flights from Beijing to Gatwick, and Korean Air is launching services to Seoul.

Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Hong Kong Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Air Berlin and Norwegian have also recently been welcomed to the Sussex airport which was bought from BAA by Global Infrastructure Partners in 2009.

But aviation chiefs believe there is likely to be an airport capacity issue in the South East in future decades.
The prospects for a third runway at Heathrow have been reignited by speculation that Chancellor George Osborne believes it should be put back on the table as a possible solution beyond the next election.
Mr Wingate, though, said: “Generally, our perception is that a third runway at Heathrow is not likely to happen.”

On the idea of an estuary airport, he added that there were some “quite significant hurdles”, including the cost which is put by some experts at £50 billion, transport links and safety concerns.
The proposal for Heath-Wick appears “sub-optimal and flawed,” he added.

 Transfer Gatwick to Heathrow Airport