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Gatwick chairman Sir Roy McNulty has branded Heathrow a “politically toxic” monopoly as the UK’s two busiest airports prepare to make their closing arguments in the battle over expansion rights.
Both Heathrow and Gatwick will publish their final plans to the Airports Commission tomorrow into where best to build the next runway in the south-east of England.
In an article published on The Daily Telegraph’s website, McNulty claimed the government will hand Heathrow’s investors a “powerful monopoly” that will raise prices for passengers if the west London hub is permitted to build a third runway.
McNulty, a former chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, also casts doubt on the ability to deliver a third runway at Heathrow even if it is selected by the commission due to political sensitivities.
Choosing Gatwick will lead to “more vigorous competition” in the market, more flights and lower fares for passengers, the airport chief argues.
Gatwick is preparing to publish an impact study, which values the economic benefits of choosing its second runway plans over Heathrow expansion at £40 billion over the next 60 years.
“Each time Heathrow has been chosen it has faced a political roadblock,” McNulty writes. “The reasons for that are very simple but worth restating. Heathrow is in the wrong place for expansion which makes it politically toxic.
“In the modern age it has not been considered acceptable to have another 270,000 flights a year over a central London flight path – with all the resulting noise and environmental impact – at a time when, today, noise at Heathrow is greater than all European airports combined.”
Gatwick claims it will be in a better position to cater for low cost airlines, the fastest growing segment of the market, than Heathrow, whose customers are predominantly legacy airlines which make use of transfer traffic to fill long and medium-haul flights.
A Heathrow spokesman said: “Heathrow supports competition and choice which is why we are not opposed to a second runway at Gatwick. Gatwick’s argument that in future passengers and airlines can have any choice as long as it’s Gatwick is the opposite of competition.
“Frontier Economics estimates that removing capacity constraints at Heathrow could cut average ticket prices by £95 today and by £300 in 2030. That price cut for UK passengers and business can only be delivered by expanding Heathrow.”