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London Gatwick Airport wants to relaunch its second runway project

2021-08-25T14:36:37.013Z


London Gatwick Airport, the second largest in the United Kingdom, announced on Wednesday that it wanted to relaunch its second runway project, despite ...


London Gatwick Airport, the second largest in the United Kingdom, announced on Wednesday that it wanted to relaunch its second runway project, despite uncertainties about the resumption of air traffic after the pandemic.

Gatwick, located south of London, wants to turn its emergency runway into a real runway with the hope of being ready for 2030, according to a statement.

He estimates that this would allow it to carry 75 million passengers per year by 2038, against a current capacity of 62 million.

Read alsoVinci lands at Gatwick Airport in London

Even though it has been hit by the health crisis and while passenger traffic is only slowly picking up, the airport says it wants to be ready for a return to normal.

"

We are convinced that Gatwick will not only return to the passenger levels of before, but has the potential to grow to become one of the first airports in Europe

", explains its managing director, Stewart Wingate.

At present, Gatwick, opened in 1958, has only one runway and two terminals.

Its back-up runway is only used when the main runway is under maintenance, or to route planes to hangars.

The second runway project already reworked in 2016

The project, which consists of widening its rescue trail, will be the subject of a public consultation from September to December.

It will eventually have to obtain the government's agreement.

The airport ensures that it will limit the impact on the environment, despite the expected increase in traffic.

Gatwick had had to close a terminal and drastically reduce its activities because of the pandemic and travel restrictions.

In the first seven months of the year, only one million passengers frequented Gatwick.

It had reached this level in just 10 days in 2019. The airport has been 50.01% owned since 2019 by Vinci Airports, a subsidiary of the French construction and concession giant Vinci.

The US fund Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) holds the remaining 49.99%.

Read alsoThe fragile takeoff of airlines in Europe

Gatwick intends to take his revenge after seeing his project retested in 2016 by the British government, which then preferred to authorize the construction of a third runway at Heathrow airport, the largest in the country, located west of London .

However, this Heathrow project is controversial and has been the subject of a long legal battle because of the expected environmental and noise pollution.

It was validated at the end of 2020 by the British Supreme Court despite an appeal judgment which had blocked it for environmental reasons.

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2021-08-25

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