Sir Howard Davies’s decision on airport expansion in the south-East is “whether you want a runway at Gatwick generating jobs, or just another report on Heathrow that will gather dust”, according to the finance boss of Britain’s second-biggest airport.
Nick Dunn, Gatwick’s finance director, claimed that if the Government backed the building of a third runway at Heathrow, “the probability is vanishingly small that anything would happen.
“If you look back over the last 40 years, Heathrow expansion has been looked at so many times, but it’s never happened.”
He added: “But Gatwick is now independent from Heathrow, and can deliver the growth that the UK needs as a whole.”
His comments came as the Sussex airport enjoyed its busiest-ever six months, with an 8% surge in passengers to 22.5 million to October.
Turnover increased by 8.6% to £391.6 million and underlying earnings flew up 12.7% to £221.6 million.
Of the noisy advertising campaigns between Heathrow and Gatwick, Dunn said he “wouldn’t call it dirty, we just need to make sure that people understand the advantages with Gatwick”.
