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UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander has signalled she will approve a second runway at Gatwick if the airport makes two changes to its plans, as the government bets on the major expansion of London’s airports to boost economic growth.
Alexander said she was minded to approve the plans if the airport agreed to stronger targets for public transport access to the airport, and to swiftly implement a noise mitigation scheme.
A Planning Inspectorate report on Thursday recommended the refusal of Gatwick’s original application, but unusually said that it would approve the application if the two changes were made.
Alexander on Thursday gave Gatwick a deadline of April 24. Gatwick did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the government’s proposed changes to the £2.2bn construction plan.
The project would significantly expand capacity by moving the emergency landing strip at Britain’s second-busiest airport 12 metres to the north. The relocation would put enough space between the strip and the existing runway so that both could operate at the same time.
The project could see planes taking off from the second runway by the end of the current parliament in 2029.
Gatwick, about 30 miles south of central London, said this second full-time runway would enable it to handle up to 75mn passengers a year by the late 2030s, up from the record 46.5mn travellers who used the airport in 2019.
The Planning Inspectorate has demanded that Gatwick adopt a legally binding target of at least 54 per cent of passengers annually arriving at the airport by public transport.
Gatwick has previously argued that it does not want the target to be legally binding. Both sides will now seek a compromise that could stop short of a legally binding target at that level.
The Planning Inspectorate has also asked Gatwick to modify its original plan for a noise mitigation plan that would be delivered in gradual phases. Officials expect the airport to agree to faster delivery to meet that demand.
The airport has presented its plan as a relatively undisruptive and low-risk way to add a new runway to airport capacity in London, since most of the work would take place within its existing boundaries.
But local campaigners have said they will challenge any decision in favour of a new runway at Gatwick in the courts, raising the prospect of a judicial review into Alexander’s decision.
Rachel Reeves last month said flights could be taking off from a new Heathrow third runway “within a decade” as she backed the long-delayed and politically contentious project.
The chancellor said in a speech that expanding Heathrow would “unlock further growth, boost investment, increase exports and make Britain more open and more connected”.
The management of Britain’s only hub airport has pledged to bring forward detailed proposals for the long-delayed project by this summer.
But some Labour MPs remain sceptical about how likely a third runway is, with planning permission unlikely to be granted until close to the end of the current parliament in 2029.
Alexander is due to rule on an expansion plan at Luton airport, to the north of London, in the coming weeks.
Whitehall officials said she is keen to approve Luton’s expansion — which does not include a new runway, but would involve the construction of new infrastructure and terminal capacity and taxiways — so long as concerns about noise over the Chiltern Hills can be addressed.
London’s Stansted and City airports have had their own expansion plans approved.
Taken together, the expanded airports could handle 309mn passengers annually — an 85 per cent increase on the 167mn who used them in 2023, the most recent year for which complete data is available, according to a Financial Times analysis.
Reeves last month said airport expansion was compatible with the government’s legally binding net zero 2050 target, pointing to “cleaner and greener flying” through so-called sustainable aviation fuels.
But climate groups have argued such an increase in passenger numbers will be incompatible with the 2050 target, in view of the difficulty in decarbonising aviation.
