Gatwick is squeezing every last ounce from its runway

“Doing nothing is not an option”: that was what the last transport secretary but a dozen, Alistair Darling, told me on a visit to Gatwick airport in 2004. He was referring to the discussion about extra aviation capacity for the southeast of England.

- SIMON CALDER TRAVEL CORRESPONDENT

Since then, a grand total of nothing has happened - except that Heathrow and Gatwick have become adept at extracting every last ounce of capacity from their ludicrously overloaded runways. They are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.

Other airports have stepped up to take some of the strain, with Southend making itself the overflow airport of choice, or at least last resort.

Now, though, something might be changing. At the weekend, transport secretary Heidi Alexander announced a £2.2bn second runway plan at Gatwick.

As part of the privately financed project, the West Sussex airport will move its emergency runway 12 metres north, enabling it to be used for around 100,000 more flights per year.