Representation by Vraj Patel
- Date submitted
- 7 September 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Gatwick desperately requires a second runway and is long overdue. Gatwick provides itself as an established alternative to the slot-constrained Heathrow and over the past year, has seen a post-pandemic renaissance with established carriers starting or resuming operations. The Northern Runway project will aim to bolster this, not only providing jobs to the people of Crawley, whom heavily rely on Gatwick for employment, but will vastly improve connections for the people south of London, Sussex, Kent and Surrey as well as promote long-term growth. Gatwick’s plans align with their sustainability goals and the upgrades will be taken place on existing land/infrastructure, hence not requiring to acquire land south of the airport (such as Lowfield Heath). It is vital that London does not lose airlines/potential hubs to its European counterpart airports such as Schiphol, CDG and Frankfurt and any need for Heathrow expansion would result in villages being swallowed up to the north of its site. Expanding Gatwick is the most sensible option, being the third closest to Central London (after City and Heathrow), having exceptional transport links and not having to acquire more land (like Heathrow and expanding London City is out of question). Luton and Stansted are too far from London and are inadequate for expansion due to them being solely low-cost hubs. The Northern Runway project will allow Gatwick to operate both as a low-cost/leisure hub and serve an ever-growing long haul/business market, especially for airlines that can’t acquire Heathrow slots due to availability or cost. This is evident through the Air India restructuring London operations and for other carriers such as Saudia and Ethiopian to serve both principal London airports. London Gatwick “obviously” (in its previous marketing) is the best option and so I fully give my support to the Northern Runway project.