Britain’s second-busiest airport, London Gatwick, is pushing ahead with plans to become a two-runway airport by the end of the decade – despite environmental concerns about the project.
The project involves bringing the standby runway into use for departures alongside the main runway – which is currently the busiest in the world for take-offs and landings. It would increase annual capacity from 281,000 movements to 386,000 – a 37 per cent increase, and just 20 per cent shy of current take-offs and landings at Heathrow.
