Gatwick to unveil controversial plans for new ‘stealth runway’

Gatwick Airport will this week unveil controversial plans to put its emergency runway into routine use to increase passenger capacity.

The plans, to be published on Thursday, could result in more than 84,000 extra flights per year.

The 8,400-foot emergency runway runs parallel to the 10,800-foot main runway and is currently used as a taxiway or as an alternative when the primary runway is undergoing maintenance.

It is thought that putting the standby runway into routine use could increase Gatwick’s passenger capacity by 20 to 30 per cent, allowing for more than 200 additional flights per day from as early as 2023.

A spokesperson for Gatwick said: “Airports are required to publish new master plans every five years, setting out their future growth plans and Gatwick has consistently confirmed it will do so before the end of this year. The draft plan will set out for our local communities, partners, airlines and stakeholders three possible growth scenarios, which we will then open up for views and feedback.”

“Gatwick has previously set out it is exploring how to make best use of its existing runways, including the possibility of bringing its existing standby runway into routine use. This would deliver an incremental increase in capacity that complements the expansion schemes of other airports across the South East.”

The Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE) has been vocal in its opposition to the plans. Sally Pavey, Chair of CAGNE, told Telegraph Travel: "If Gatwick is permitted to use the emergency runway it will be targeting the very people that do not have respite, who Gatwick currently ignore: the residents that have had to endure the 24.1 per cent increase in long-haul this year."

Pavey who lives near Horsham - a town close to the airport in West Sussex - has described the project as a runway by "stealth" or "by the backdoor", and added "Gatwick will never be trusted again."

The group has also spoken out with safety concerns regarding the emergency runway’s close proximity to the existing main runway. Pavey said: "It has always been said that they can't use the two runways together due to safety, wings touching and planes crossing the runways to access the piers. Nothing has changed.  To use the emergency runway on a regular basis would mean planes diverted to Manchester, the north, if there was an emergency."

A legal agreement from 1979, prohibiting the two runways to be used concurrently, expires in August 2019. The Gatwick Airport spokesperson said: “Safety and security are always our key priorities and any new development would be fully compliant with all international safety requirements.”

Gatwick Airport has drafted expansion plans in the past. In 2016 the government rejected a proposal for a new second runway, instead giving the green light for Heathrow Airport to build a third runway.

Gatwick is the UK’s second largest airport and was up until recently the most efficient single-runway airport in the world (Mumbai now lays claim to the title), serving 228 destinations across 74 countries. It receives 45 million passengers on 282,000 flights per year.

The airport has just recorded its busiest-ever September, with 4.5 million passengers passing through the airport - a 0.3 per cent increase on September last year. Stewart Wingate, CEO of London Gatwick, said: “Ensuring Gatwick has the capacity to grow sustainably in the decades to come is the key to a prosperous future for the South East and the UK as a whole."

In June, Gatwick unveiled £1.11billion plans to expand part of the North Terminal with six new departure gates.