In a speech at the annual dinner of trade body Airlines UK in central London on Tuesday night, she said Britain “must do both” when it came to growing the economy and protecting the environment.
“I love flying. I always have.”
The transport secretary has a deadline of Thursday to announce whether she has decided to approve a development consent order application by Gatwick to bring its emergency runway into routine use.
She told the gathering of aviation leaders there are “capacity problems, particularly at airports in the South East”, before revealing the planning application for Gatwick’s expansion is “literally on my desk”.
“I say we must do both.”
The transport secretary has a deadline of Thursday to make her decision on Gatwick’s second runway (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport is developing detailed plans for its third runway project.
She added: “This Government believes in increasing airport capacity. We’re ambitious for the sector.
Gatwick’s £2.2bn privately financed project would see it move the emergency runway 12 metres north.
Road connections to both terminals would be enhanced, paid for by Gatwick, with flyovers to separate local traffic from vehicles travelling to or from the airport.
Additional car parking, offices and hotels would also be provided.
It hopes the upgraded runway will be operational by the end of the decade.
But the airport insists it has conducted “full and thorough assessments” of those issues.
Under the plan, the emergency runway would be used for departures of narrow-bodied planes such as Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s.
This would see its total annual number of flights rise from 280,000 to 380,000.
Gatwick says its plans would create £1bn per year in economic benefits, and generate an additional 14,000 jobs.
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