Gatwick boss Wingate accuses Commission of runway decision mistakes

Gatwick Airport's chief executive has launched a scathing attack on the Airports Commission ahead of the publication of its final submission calling for it to be allowed to build a second runway.

The Government is expected to make a decision during the next six weeks on how runway capacity in the southeast of England should be expanded.

Three possible options have been shortlisted: a third runway at Heathrow Airport, a second runway at Gatwick, or the so-called 'Heathrow Hub' option, under which the north runway at Heathrow would be extended to allow an increased number of take-offs and landings each hour.

The Airports Commission, chaired by Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) chairman Sir Howard Davies, published its final report on the matter on 1 July, 2015 and it unequivocally recommended a third runway at Heathrow, combined with a package of measures to address environmental and community impacts.

But Gatwick boss Stewart Wingate exclusively told Sky News that the Commission had made a number of mistakes in reaching its conclusion.

He said these included failing to take into account the extent to which the price of air travel has an impact on demand for flights; a failure to recognise how changes in aircraft technology are changing the services offered by airlines - in particular the development of more long-haul routes where passengers fly 'point-to-point' from one destination directly to another, instead of via a hub like Heathrow or Dubai; and a failure to recognise how hub traffic is already moving from European airports to lower cost rivals in the Middle East.

Mr Wingate said the focus on hub airports risked "attaching too much weight to yesterday's trends, at the expense of cost and efficiency".

And he said the Commission had made a number of predictions that had already been overtaken by events, including a forecast that Gatwick would take until 2030 before it was annually handling 42 million passengers, a target the airport will actually hit this year.

He said the Commission had also predicted that Gatwick would not be offering 50 long-haul routes until 2050, and only then with a second runway, whereas the airport was already offering more than that.

Mr Wingate said that, compared with building a third runway at Heathrow, a second runway at Gatwick was cheaper and could be delivered more quickly and with no subsidy from taxpayers.

He said he was so confident of this that Gatwick was promising to cap its passenger charges to no more than £15 per passenger, pointing out that, according to British Airways, the biggest single airline at Heathrow, charges at the latter would rise to £40 per passenger to help pay for the third runway.

He said Gatwick was also offering to pay £1,000 annually towards the council tax bills of those who would be most affected by a second runway at the airport.

Asked why Gatwick had not reduced its estimates of how much a second runway would cost to build, unlike Heathrow, which has reportedly offered to reduce the cost of building a third runway by £3bn in recent weeks, Mr Wingate insisted that was because his company had been certain of its arithmetic from the outset.

In spite of pressure from former chancellor George Osborne, David Cameron repeatedly delayed making a decision on expanding airport capacity in the southeast of England.

The former PM once said "no ifs, no buts, no third runway" and was desperate not to have to go back on his word.

Although the local council in Theresa May's Maidenhead constituency is opposed to be a third runway at Heathrow, the PM is thought likely to go for that option - and especially now that all possible environmental and community objections to such an expansion have been largely overcome.

You can see an exclusive interview with Stewart Wingate on Ian King Live at 6.30pm on Sky News.