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British transport secretary Heidi Alexander reported that she would approve a second track to Gatwick if the airport is making changes to her plans, while the government is betting on the major expansion of London airports to stimulate economic growth.
Alexander said that she was approving the plans later this year if the airport accepted “a range of controls on the operating of the program”.
These include more solid objectives for access to public transport to the site and to quickly implement a noise mitigation scheme, according to officials.
A planning inspection report Thursday recommended the refusal of GatwickThe original request, but unusually declared that it would approve the request if the changes were made.
Alexander gave Gatwick a deadline of April 24 to reorganize his plans.
In a written ministerial statement, Alexander said that she had published a “letter of spirit to approve” for the second track.
However, she said that she needed “additional time” to request the opinions of the parties concerned and extended the deadline for her final decision from nine months to October 27.
Gatwick did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the changes proposed by the government to the construction plan of 2.2 billion pounds Sterling.
The project would considerably increase the capacity by moving the emergency landing track in the second most common airport in Great Britain 12 meters north. The relocation would put enough space between the band and the existing track so that the two can operate at the same time.
The project could see planes take off from the second track by the end of the current parliament in 2029.
A government official said that the decision was an “important step” that demonstrated how the government “would stop at nothing” to provide economic growth.
“Expansion will bring enormous advantages to business and represent a victory for vacationers,” they said. “We want to offer this opportunity in accordance with our legal, environmental and climatic obligations.”
Gatwick, about 30 miles south of the center of London, said that this second full -time track would allow it to manage up to 75 million passengers per year in the late 2030s, against the record of 46.5 million travelers who used the airport in 2019.
The planning inspection demanded that Gatwick adopt a legally binding objective of at least 54% of passengers arriving per year at the airport by public transport. Gatwick previously argued that he did not want the target to be legally restrictive, and both sides will now seek a compromise.
The planning inspection also asked Gatwick to modify its original noise attenuation plan.
Gatwick presented its expansion plan as a means of adding a new track to the capacity of the airport in London – compared to the long and politically controversial proposal to add a Third track in Heathrow – Since most of the work would take place within its existing limits. But local activists said they would contest any decision in favor of a new track in Gatwick before the courts.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last month that flights could take off from a third track in Heathrow “In a decade”. She said that heathrow’s expansion “would unlock additional growth, would increase investments, increase exports and make Britain more open and more connected”.
The management of the British Hub airport alone is committed to presenting detailed proposals this summer. But some labor deputies remain skeptical about the expansion of Heathrow, the building permit, it is unlikely that it will be granted until the end of the current parliament in 2029.
Alexander is expected to govern an expansion plan at Luton airport, north of London, in the coming weeks.
Whitehall officials said that she wanted to approve the expansion of Luton – which does not include a new track, but would imply the construction of new infrastructures and terminal capacity and traffic lanes – as long as the concerns of noise on the hills of Chiltern can be addressed.
Stansted and City airports in London have had their own approved expansion plans.
Overall, widened airports could manage 309 million passengers per year – an increase of 85% compared to the 167 million which used them in 2023, the most recent year for which complete data is available, according to a financial time analysis.
Reeves last month said that the airport expansion was compatible with the government’s net Zero 2050 objective of the government of the government, pointing towards “a cleaner and green flight” through affordable aviation fuels.
But the climatic groups argued that such an increase in the number of passengers will be incompatible with the target of 2050, given the difficulty of decarbonizing aviation.
This story has been updated to clarify that the transport secretary Heidi Alexander gave himself until October to make a final decision.
