The Gatwick Airport expansion plan is heralded as a £1.5billion boost for the economy with 18,000 more jobs in Surrey & Sussex, including Waverley.
But not everyone is happy about an additional 34,000 extra flights a year – reduced from 55,000 due to COVID. Plus, a cargo hub – leading to more HGV’s on local roads.
By operating the two runways simultaneously, Gatwick would run between ten and fifteen additional hourly aircraft movements in the peak hours, which could deliver 70 million passengers by 2032.
Gatwick’s second runway will take annual flights to a staggering 382,000 a year using the same flight paths, some of which are across the borough of Waverley as they are today. Though the northern routes will shift north. (The Civil Aviation Authority do not require a consultation for airspace change.)
The village of Ewhurst- home of Guildford MP Angela Richardson, is just 8-miles as the crow flies from the bottom end of Gatwick Airport’s main runway.
The changes are in line with Government policy to make the best use of existing runways.
It expects noise from increased flights will be reduced due to quieter engines.
Gatwick’s CEO Stewert Wingate launched the consultation, which ends on December 1 2021, saying:
“Our development plans will come into action at the end of the 2020s, but we think now is the right time to bring forward the consultation and prepare the DCO to be submitted later next year. We expect to be back at pre-pandemic levels by 2025/26 and when you look at the capacity crunch which we envisage will happen in the UK based on the Government’s traffic forecast then certainly there will be a requirement for airport expansion by the late 2020s. If you look at the time frame of 2030 the government forecasts there should be 50 million passengers travelling to and from London as was the case prior to the pandemic in addition to the volume. Therefore there is a requirement to bring our growth plans to fruition as the capacity begins to get strained again.”
We have to go through the planning process and the procurement process and finally bring the standby runway into operation, which will happen by 2029.”
You can view the plans in detail here: