Heathrow and Gatwick shortlisted for expansion

Extra runways at Heathrow and Gatwick are the recommendations of the Airports Commission report published today.

The Gatwick Airport proposal is for a new runway to the south of the existing runway.

At Heathrow it said there are two options – a new 3,500m runway to the northwest and extending the existing northern runway to at least 6,000m enabling it to operate as two independent runways.

The Commission has not shortlisted any of the Thames Estuary options because ‘there are too many uncertainties and challenges surrounding them at this stage’.

Nor has it shortlisted proposals for expansion at Stansted or Birmingham, however, it said there is likely to be a case for considering them as potential options for any second new runway by 2050.

The report also recommends actions to improve the use of existing runways.

These include an ‘optimisation strategy’ to improve the efficiency of UK airports and airspace and better en-route traffic management to keep airlines to schedules.

It also recommends transport improvements to make airports with spare capacity more attractive to airlines and passenger.

These include enhancing Gatwick’s road and rail access, improving the rail link between London and Stansted, providing rail access into Heathrow from the south and operating smart ticketing facilities at airport stations.

The next phase will involve a detailed look at the three options before a public consultation in autumn next year.

Launching the report Sir Howard Davies Chair of the Commission said: "Decisions on airport capacity are important national strategic choices and must be based upon the best evidence available.

"This report is the product of extensive consultation, independent analysis and careful consideration by the commissioners.

"The capacity challenge is not yet critical but it will become so if no action is taken soon and our analysis clearly supports the provision of one net additional runway by 2030."

Dale Keller, chief executive of BAR UK, said "Despite the inevitable challenges and disagreement that will follow, the vast majority of airlines believe that expanding Heathrow is now the only sensible way forward for the UK.

"Sir Howard and his team have correctly identified that other proposals would cost billions in public funding and could create mass relocations and associated social upheaval and economic pain, or not deliver on the core objectives. Unlike rail, it’s the world’s airlines and their customers who will ultimately pay for the new airport infrastructure through airport charges."

The Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC) said: "This is no surprise. For the past year GACC has assumed that Gatwick would be included in the short-list of potential sites for a new runway.

"Now we know that only the so-called ‘wide-spaced’ runway option will be examined – the one that would cause most environmental damage."

Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Craig Kreeger said: "Although Gatwick is a very important airport to us, additional runway capacity there does not address the UK’s chronic hub capacity shortage.

"The passenger mix at London’s hub will always include point-to-point and connecting, business and leisure passengers. Attempting to substitute point-to-point capacity for capacity at the hub may be more politically expedient but it is not commercially viable."

David Cameron has softened his line on Heathrow and is expected to back the building of a third runway there during the next Parliament.

He set up the Davies review in order to delay a final decision until after the 2015 election.

When the coalition government came to power in 2010 it scrapped the former Labour government’s plan for a third runway at Heathrow.

On Sunday, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin told the BBC that the government would stick to its pledge not to build a new runway at Heathrow ‘in this Parliament’.