Gatwick’s new runway drive boosted by passenger increase

The fight for a new runway between London’s two major airports may be becoming one sided as Gatwick claims it has had the busiest year in the airport’s history.

Gatwick has reported that over the last financial year, passenger numbers have increased by 7.8% to 38.7 million.

The airport also released its yearly figures and revealed that profits were £83.5m before tax, however this slightly fell from last year’s total of £85.8m.

On Gatwick’s busiest day this year, in August, 906 airplanes took off and landed at the airport, which is a world record for a single-runway airport.

The Airport Commission is expected to announce its recommendation for a new runway at either Gatwick or Heathrow this summer. The commission will look at three options: a new runway at Heathrow, a runway extension at Heathrow or a new runway at Gatwick.

The addition of a runway at Heathrow, England’s largest airport and hub, will cost an estimated £19bn, whereas a new runway at Gatwick would be around £9bn.

Although Gatwick doesn’t operate to the capacity of Heathrow, and only tends to run short-haul, leisure flights, the airport is introducing new long-haul flights to Turkey, Russia and Indonesia and the Middle East.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick Airport chief executive, said: “Our record growth has shown why Gatwick remains the best choice.

“Gatwick is fast approaching capacity, with almost 40 million passengers travelling with us this year, which puts us a decade ahead of Department of Transport predictions.”

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