Investors back extra runway at Gatwick

GATWICK’S shareholders have given the green light to a runway expansion that would add around 90 extra flights per day, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

In recent weeks, the airport’s billionaire investors – French giant VINCI Airports and infrastructure fund GIP – have committed to funding the next stage of a scheme to upgrade Gatwick’s ‘standby’ northern runway, currently used as a taxiway and emergency runway, for routine use.

It would be used alongside Gatwick’s existing runway as a so-called ‘runway-lite’, operating short-haul take-offs by the end of the decade.

Gatwick will now develop the planning application for the project, including environmental surveys, and hopes to launch a public consultation in the summer.

It is understood that if the plan gets the go-ahead, its shareholders would invest hundreds of millions of pounds.

Until the pandemic, Gatwick was the busiest single-runway airport in the world. But its biggest airline customers – BA, easyJet, Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic – have suspended or scaled back flights.

Gatwick expects passenger demand to recover to pre- crisis levels from 2023 and said the northern runway expansion would add £2 billion to the economy and create thousands of jobs.

The scheme is also environmentally sustainable, in line with Gatwick’s commitment to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

A spokesman said: ‘Progressing our plans now could help us secure the long-term prosperity and jobs in the region for years to come.’