Gatwick Airport moves forward on its desire to bring northern runway into use

For several years London Gatwick Airport was a serious challenger to Heathrow Airport for the awarding of a further runway for Southeast England, which was debated at length by the Airports Commission and then the UK parliament.

Gatwick lost that battle, having indeed been the only other serious contender for most of the time.

But while work has yet to start on Heathrow's third runway (the Airports Commission's chairman having since thrown doubt on its validity, now), it could be argued that Gatwick will have won the war if it progresses with its own scheme to bring back into use as a second runway, which is now used as a taxiway.

In common with the zeitgeist of 2023, Gatwick is more concerned at trumpeting job creation possibilities than that it would have a second runway.

And it has a lot to trumpet about. Having been down and almost out during the COVID-19 pandemic and having lost important airlines, the airport has traffic growth in the past year, in particular, that was industry-leading.