Airport Resilience

"London’s airports continue to focus on the future."

- By Mary Melnick. Photograph by Thomas Dutour

Gatwick Airport originally opened in 1930 as Surrey Aero Club, a small club of flying enthusiasts. In 1950 Gatwick was officially designated London’s second airport.

London-area airports are pushing forward, making improvements, and expanding despite setbacks from COVID-19.

Heathrow Airport was built in 1930 as a private airport to assemble and test aircraft and featured a single grass runway. Throughout the years the airport expanded and fulfilled other services. Now the largest airport in London, Heathrow plans to expand with a third runway to the northwest of the other two, a plan supported by the government’s Airports National Policy Statement. The project will create thousands of jobs and billions in economic benefits to the United Kingdom.