Gatwick Expansion Plans Get Lift-Off

CGTN Europe

The UK's Transport Secretary says she believes in airport expansion. It comes before the Thursday deadline for a planning application from the UK's second busiest airport London Gatwick to open a second runway.   CGTN’s Ray Addison reports.

Transcript

00:00Gatwick Airport is the busiest single runway airport in Europe.

00:05Officially opened in 1958, it's grown from just 186,000 passengers a year to over 40 million.

00:13But this week it could get the green light to expand,

00:16bringing its existing emergency runway, currently limited to acting as a taxiway,

00:22into regular use, an idea which concerns local campaigners.

00:26You have to understand that Gatwick is 24-7, so it flies at night time.

00:31So for people trying to sleep, that is really not good news.

00:35When people want to have their windows open,

00:43they have noise like that going over their houses.

00:46If the UK Transport Secretary agrees, the expansion would increase passenger numbers

00:52to an estimated 75 million a year by the late 2030s.

00:56But with more flights come more carbon emissions, risking the government's net zero targets.

01:02The nearby village of Chalwood is on the flight path.

01:06You certainly feel vibration.

01:08A number of people will tell you about their front door rattling, their windows rattling, etc.

01:13And it's not necessarily immediately by the runway.

01:17You'll get people, I know people who live about a mile and a half further out.

01:20You can't stop climate change and the carbon emission impact,

01:24which is critical, absolutely critical.

01:27And they're not going to reach net zero if you put Gatwick expansion in place.

01:31But not everyone is against the plan.

01:34Business leaders say cargo coming into Gatwick could double,

01:38generating 35,000 new jobs and boosting Britain's struggling economy by $2.5 billion every year.

01:46So from an estate agency point of view, obviously more people moving into the area.

01:50There is a lot of proposed developments around the Crawley, Hawley and the South East.

01:55So from an estate agent's point of view, it's good for business.

01:59A lot of the businesses are in favour of it,

02:02but several have concerns about the usual, which is the environment.

02:06MPs in this area have asked for the Gatwick expansion decision to be delayed

02:11until a complete assessment has been made of the noise and environmental impact.

02:15However, with the Chancellor already giving the go-ahead to the expansion of Heathrow Airport,

02:20plus concerns about low growth and low investment,

02:23the smart money says Gatwick's second runway will get lift off.

02:28Ray Addison, CGTN, Gatwick Airport.

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