Future Of Gatwick Airport

The single major constraint for the future development and expansion of Gatwick is that it has to operate with a single runway. Full capacity is expected to be reached within the next two years. It is hoped that the increase in aircraft size will assist passenger levels reach 40 million by 2015. Nearly 90% of all customers using Gatwick are from the South East, Greater London, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Gatwick is highly reliant on the holiday trade for its business and Stansted and Luton are expected to increase their slice of this market especially after 2015 when capacity is reached.

Current and Forecast Gatwick Movements.

                                    2005                     2015 Estimated

Aircraft movements        261274                 282,000

Passenger numbers       32.7m                   40m

Cargo Tonnage             225,995                330,000     

By 2015 no increase in the amount of land available is expected and Gatwick operators will have to work hard to overcome this disadvantage. Gatwick will look to increase the size of the terminals and replace the more aged facilities.Terminals will need to be altered for connection to larger airpcrafts in particular the new A380 with larger aprons and piers.                    

Whilst Gatwick can look to increase capacity the Government's White paper recommends a second runway for Stansted and possibly a third for Heathrow. If Heathrow does not succeed in a third runway Gatwick may still get its second runway.

Once again due to available land Gatwick will have to hit a target of 40% of its passengers arriving at the airport by other means rather than by car. Whilst Gatwick airport parking will increase it will be no mean feat to achieve this target.