Gatwick boss Stewart Wingate has said he is confident over the airport’s £2.2 billion plan for a second runway as the deadline to assess the proposal looms.
Wingate commented on Thursday that he was “optimistic” about getting the green light for the project by February, with the examination phase due to end on Tuesday.
This would see the airport’s second runway bought into routine use, boosting Gatwick’s capacity to around 75 million passengers a year by the late 2030s, after around 47 million passed through in 2019.
A recommendation is due to be made by planning inspectors to the government by November following Tuesday’s deadline, before a final decision from ministers in the following months.
“We are certainly optimistic because we are very confident of what we have put forward,” Wingate commented after the airport reported a jump in profit on Thursday.
“It’s a very strong proposal fully privately financed that is ready to be delivered. We can get spades in the ground very quickly.”
Gatwick has previously said a second runway at the airport could boost the UK economy by £1 billion annually and create 14,000 new jobs.
Were the plan to be approved, construction would start to convert what is now the airport’s emergency runway into a fully operational strip for smaller short-haul jets to take off.
This northern runway would be operational by late in the decade, with the existing strip then handling all landings.
“The proposal is in line with the policy of successive governments of maximising the use of existing facilities, so we have every reason to be optimistic,” Wingate added.