We are practically full and must expand, says Gatwick boss
Gatwick Airport is “practically full” and must expand in order to tap booming travel demand and reduce delays, its chief executive has said.
“If you look at the need from Gatwick airport’s perspective, at the moment we’re practically full,” Stewart Wingate told CityAM in an interview.
“Certainly in the peak times and in peak hours of the day, we know that there is demand for flying, often for long-haul routes… but at the moment we’re finding it incredibly difficult to accommodate.”
Wingate’s comments come after the Planning Inspectorate last Wednesday passed its recommendation to ministers on whether it should let the airport’s £2.2bn proposals for a second runway go ahead. Its verdict will remain behind close doors until a final decision by the Secretary of State in February.
A key motivator behind its expansion bid is that it would enable the introduction of a number of new long-haul routes, a market traditionally dominated by Heathrow in the UK.
Gatwick currently competes with Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for a position as the world’s busiest single runway airport, with almost 20m passengers passing through its gates in the first half of this year.
Such soaring demand has seen the Sussex hub sign-up long-haul airlines in recent years, bringing the likes of Norse Atlantic, Air Mauritius and Ethiopian Airlines into the fold and with upwards of 50 destinations via long-haul flights now on offer.
“If the project were to go ahead… what it enables us to do is attract some of those really lucrative long-haul routes because the pent-up demand is there,” Wingate said, a reference to how Covid lockdowns have caused a multi-year boom in travel.
Expansion would also go some way to alleviating pressure off the airport’s current infrastructure, easing up waiting times and reducing cancellations before take-off.
Disruption has been a significant problem at Gatwick in recent years, with post-covid staff shortages causing huge delays in 2022 and issues with its air traffic control (ATC) operation forcing the hub to apologise to passengers last September.
“It gives us the opportunity to dramatically increase the resilience of the operation of the airport… so that we can actually offer a more reliable service to passengers in the years ahead,” Wingate told CityAM.
It is impossible to say now whether the project will go ahead. Gatwick faces pushback from the JLA, a group of regional councils including Crawley, West Sussex, Surrey and Reigate. In a recent letter, they warned the current project would “impose unjustified adverse impacts on local communities, local businesses and the receiving environment.”
Local and environmental campaigners have also been fierce in their opposition. “It might seem like Christmas for Gatwick Airport management, shareholders and local taxi drivers, but not for residents of Sussex, Surrey and Kent who would bear the full burden of an airport as large as Heathrow is today,” a spokesperson for CAGNE (Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions), said.
The government has given mixed signals over its position on airport expansion. Senior figures suggested in the summer that Labour was “open-minded” towards a third runway at Heathrow, while in August, ministers overturned a verdict from Newham council and gave the go-head for a big capacity expansion at London City Airport.
However, a decision on Luton Airport’s bid to expand capacity from 19m to 32m passengers per year was delayed by the former Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, in September.
Labour ministers also recently pushed back a decision on whether to proceed with the UK’s biggest road tunnel, the Lower Thames Crossing, a move which epitomised the uncertainty surrounding the UK’s major infrastructure projects.
Wingate, though, is confident the decision won’t be delayed beyond February. “There’s no need to have it pushed back but obviously that will be a government decision and we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
“My reflection would be the fundamentals of this project as strong as they ever were. It’s making the best use of the existing facilities… it doesn’t interfere with the motorways, it doesn’t interfere with the railway line. The vast majority of the work is done within the existing boundary of the airport.”
The aviation veteran insisted the project is “further advanced” and in a “different place” to Luton. “All we can do, as we have been doing, is to work really hard to try to make sure that we get the decision in our favour.”
His argument is simple: 14,000 jobs and £1bn for the UK economy.