A government minister has thrown his weight behind a second runway at Gatwick.
Defence secretary Philip Hammond said expanding the Sussex airport is the best way to boost London’s capacity.
The former transport minister, writing in a column for his local newspaper, said the move would provide “decades worth of passenger growth capacity”.
Bosses at Gatwick are keen to expand and say a second runway would affect fewer homes than new runways at Heathrow.
Under an agreement with |residents, a second runway at Gatwick could not be built before 2019.
Gatwick currently supports 23,000 jobs and sees 34 million passengers a year.
A commission set up by the Government and headed by Sir Howard Davies is looking into the country’s airport capacity.
When he ran the Department for Transport, Mr Hammond favoured the so-called “Heath-wick” solution of two runways each at Heathrow and Gatwick, linked by super-fast rail to form a dual hub.
Mr Hammond said the traditional hub airports would not be needed in future because new aircraft did not require stopover on journeys.
He said: “So why not reflect that reality with a multi-airport model and expand London’s existing single runway airports at Gatwick and eventually Stansted, to two runways each, providing decades worth of passenger growth capacity.”
Short-term sollution
Henry Smith, MP for nearby Crawley, said: “The Davis Commission on the future of London and south east airport capacity will receive hundreds of submissions from different authorities, organisations and businesses, with varying ideas as to the way forward for UK aviation and the economy.
“Personally, expansion of Stansted would not be my preferred option, not least because it still has plenty of capacity on its current configuration that it could fill.”
Brendon Sewill, chairman of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, said expanding Gatwick would be another example of the “short-term solutions” that had blighted British aviation policy.
He said: “I doubt if he (Mr Hammond) has walked around the area — if so he would see there is no room for a second runway.”
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