London Gatwick: Have your say on ambitious draft masterplan

London Gatwick has launched a 12-week public consultation to gather feedback for its newly published draft masterplan.

It is hoped that the continued development of London Gatwick will help meet future aviation demand for sustainable growth, while ensuring stronger connections between Britain and other global markets post-Brexit. It’s thought that the development will also provide new opportunities across the South East, boosting the regional economy for generations to come.

Looking ahead to 2030, the draft masterplan considers how the airport might grow via one of three scenarios summarized below:

1. Using new technology to increase the efficiency and capacity of the main runway.
2. Bringing an existing standby runway into routine use by the mid-2020s.
3. While London Gatwick is not actively pursuing an additional runway, it may safeguard land south of the airport for future use.

London Gatwick is keen to encourage responses to the 12-week consultation, and more information on the events being held to gather feedback is available here.

“As the UK heads towards an important new chapter, Gatwick’s growing global connections are needed more than ever but this must be achieved in the most sustainable way,” said Stewart Wingate, CEO of London Gatwick. “From using new technologies on our main runway, to the innovative proposal to bring our existing standby runway into routine use, our draft master plan offers agile, productive and low-impact ways of unlocking much-needed new capacity and increased resilience from within our existing infrastructure.”

CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn added: “Now more than ever, unlocking new aviation capacity to deliver global trade links is critical for a strong UK economy. London’s airports are set to be full in the next decade, so the CBI welcomes Gatwick’s highly productive proposals to deliver increased capacity that complements expansion schemes at other airports. This will drive trade and investment, create new jobs and help British businesses thrive.”

If you would like to read more articles like this then please click here.