UK approved another runway in Gatwick if plans are adapted

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Heidi Alexander, Minister of Transport of the United Kingdom, has announced that he approves another runway in Gatwick if the airport is making changes to its plans, as the government will invoke London airports to the greatest expansion of economic growth.

Alexander said he was in mind that he was acceptable later this year if the airport agreed to « system control ».

According to officials, they include stronger goals for access to public transport to the site and quickly implementing the noise mitigation system.

The design inspector report on Thursday recommends refusing GatwickOriginal application, but unusually said it would accept the application if the changes are made.

Alexander has given Gatwick a deadline on April 24 to renew his plans.

Alexander said in the literary ministerial law that he had given the other runway to « accept a letter ».

However, he said he needed « extra time » to look for views from the relevant parties and extended his final decision on nine months on October 27.

Gatwick did not immediately respond to the comment request for the changes proposed by the government to the £ 2.2 billion building plan.

The project would significantly expand the capacity by moving the emergency bills to the second boring airport in the UK 12 meters north. The transition would set enough space between the ribbon and the existing runway so that they could work at the same time.

The project could see aircraft from another runway by the end of the current Parliament in 2029.

One government official said that the decision was a « important step forward », which showed how the government « stops for anything » to produce economic growth.

« The extension brings huge benefits to the business and represents a profit for holidaymakers, » they said. « We want to offer this opportunity in accordance with our legal, environmental and climate obligations. »

Gatwick, about 30 miles south of London, said that this second full-time runway would allow it to handle up to 75 million passengers a year in the late 2030s, with a record 46.5 million passengers who used the airport in 2019.

The Planning Inspection Agency has demanded that Gatwick adopts a legally binding target, which is at least 54 % of passengers every year to the airport by public transport. Gatwick has previously claimed that it does not want the subject to be legally binding, and both parties are now looking for compromises.

The design inspector has also asked Gatwick to change the original noise mitigation plan.

Gatwick has presented its extension plan with a relatively low risk of increasing a new runway to the airport capacity in London-compared to a long-term and politically controversial proposal to add A Third runway in Heathrow – Because most of the work would take place within its current limits. But local campaigns have said that they challenge all decisions for the new runway in Gatwick in courts.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last month that flights can leave a third runway in Heathrow “Within ten years’. He said that the extension of Heathrow « opens growth to increase, increase investment, increase exports, and make Britain more open and connected. »

The Great Britain’s only hub airport management is committed to making detailed proposals this summer. But some representatives of the Workers’ Party are still skeptical about the expansion of Heathrow, and the design permit is unlikely to be granted until the end of the current Parliament in 2029.

Alexander is scheduled to manage the expansion plan at Leton Airport north of London, in the coming weeks.

Whitehall officials said they were eager to accept the Luton extension – which does not include a new runway, but which included new infrastructure and terminal capacity and roller construction – as long as the concerns about Chiltern Hills noise can be addressed.

London Stansted and city airports have their own expansion plan.

Together, extended airports were able to handle 309 million passengers per year – an increase of 85 % to 167 million, which used them in 2023, the last year, which is available in the Financial Times analysis.

Reeves said last month that the airport extension was compatible with the government’s legally binding with the Net Zero 2050 target, which indicated « cleaner and greener flying » through the so -called durable aviation fuels.

But climate groups have claimed that such an increase in passenger numbers is in conflict with the 2050 target, taking into account carbon dioxide access.

This story has been updated to clarify that Minister of Transport Heidi Alexander has given himself to October to make the final decision.