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GATWICK airport is set for a multi-million-pound makeover after it was sold today for £1.5billion.
The new owners are planning to challenge Heathrow for holiday makers with a major overhaul of services and new routes to long-haul destinations.
Under the new plans Global Infrastructure Partners are also set to call for a second runway, increasing flight capacity by 40 per cent.
Gatwick, which handles 32million passengers every year, is the busiest single-runway airport in the world. The new moves would take the airport to a point where it would handle 45million passengers a year.
Under an agreement with residents living near Gatwick, a new runway cannot be built at the airport until 2019.
However, given long planning lead times, it is understood the airport's new owner will begin the planning process now to deliver a new runway as soon after 2019 as possible.
That will cause a storm of protest across the South, from householders blighted by more airline noise to environmentalists attempting to curtail the carbon-intensive activities of the aviation industry.
The head of the Gatwick area's conservation group said today that the new owners must not “ride roughshod” over local concerns.
Brendon Sewill, chairman of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, said there were fears that “a faceless international consortium will squeeze every pound it can out of the airport rather than addressing local worries”.
Global Infrastructure Partners is a joint venture between the American conglomerate General Electric and the international bank Credit Suisse.
GIP bought the business trafficoriented London City Airport in Docklands for £700 million two years ago. It is understood GIP plans to shake up Gatwick and make it the airport of choice for holidaymakers by keeping its biggest airline, easyJet, and all the European package tour airlines but also developing more far-flung international destinations.
Gatwick was put up for sale by Spanish-owned BAA after the Competition Commission ruled its ownership of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted gave it too much market power. It is challenging a ruling that it must also sell Stansted and one of either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports.
“Gatwick and its people have long been a central part of BAA,” said BAA chief executive Colin Matthews.
“But BAA is changing and today's announcement marks a new beginning for both Gatwick and BAA. BAA will focus on improving Heathrow and our other airports.”
