Decision on Second Runway at Gatwick Expected

Thought for Thursday

“The Waves” by Virginia Woolf

"Behold! The vast Atlantic waves at play,

Playing and tumbling in their endless dance,

Magnificent and fierce, as the sunlight glints

Upon their crests, a never-ending trance."

Decision on Second Runway at Gatwick Expected?

A decision is expected to be announced later today on whether permission will be granted for Europe’s busiest single runway airport to expand.

While Gatwick currently has two runways, the northern runway is not used for take-off and landings, instead being used for taxiing and emergency. Hence, supporters of the expansion will hope that today’s announcement will enable Gatwick to have two operational runways.

Proponents argue that two operational runways could see flight departures rise by 50,000 a year by the end the next decade. With the UK’s second busiest airport handling around 40 million passengers a year, the airport claims that it is more or less at capacity.

A BBC article also cited one of Gatwick’s directors who told the organisation that they will seek to “deliver 14,000 additional jobs and generate ￡1bn a year additional revenue across the nation”.

The planning permission hinges on being able to move the northern runway 12 meters to the north, enabling it to be complaint with safety regulations.

Opposition to the proposals centre the impact it will have on the environment, in addition to air and noise quality concerns. In addition to these, local residents also worry about the implications that it could have on existing infrastructure in the area, with voices being raised over traffic concerns. The Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE) for example have said that they will take legal action, if permission is granted.

Today’s announcement, delivered by the Transport Sec. Heidi Alexander MP comes against a backdrop which has seen the government support plans for a third runway at Heathrow in an effort to boost growth. As we have previously looked at given that no application is even in the pipeline for a third runway at Heathrow – and any such application and possible construction would take a considerable length of time – pinning any growth prospects on a third runway to many will seem futile.

A third runway, it is claimed, could see the number of flights from the UK’s busiest airport rise from the existing cap of 480,000 a year, to as many as 720,000.

?

Trump Tariff Threats Tighten

Yesterday afternoon, markets digested news that Donald Trump would be announcing plans on EU tariffs “very soon”, raising fears of a trade war across the Atlantic at a time when tensions remain fragile – particularly over defence policy and Ukraine.??

Speaking on proposals for tariffs, the president said that “It'll be 25% generally speaking and that will be on cars and all other things." He went further to say that "the European Union was formed to screw the United States - that's the purpose of it and they've done a good job of it.”

The impact that these tariffs could have on international trade and the global economy are hard to understate. For example, The European Union and the United States maintain the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship globally with the total trade in goods and services between these two entities amounting to approximately €1.6 trillion in 2023.

Attention now turns to any firm developments from the oval office on tariffs towards the EU, in addition to those earmarked for Mexico, Canada, and other key trading partners.