Gatwick is the UK's second busiest airport and the sixth largest in the world. It currently handles around 32 million passengers a year with this figure expected to rise to around 40 million by 2008. With its responsibility to increase its capacity to meet rising demand with the support of the local community in mind, the airport has produced a sustainable development strategy. The strategy outlines how Gatwick should develop during the next 10 years as a one runway, two terminal airport and is the result of three years of close consultation with local authorities and communities.
Growth has to sit comfortably alongside the welfare and prosperity of the local community.
This is underpinned by more than 150 commitments which include detailed proposals for managing noise, cutting down waste and energy use, landscaping and developing its Community Trust Fund. A tri-partite legal agreement with the Crawley town and West Sussex county council holds Gatwick to 40 legally binding obligations which are designed to ensure that while the airport continues to bring economic benefit to the region, it does not cause significant detrimental impact to its neighbours and surrounding environment. Now we're working on component projects such as investigating the potential of a bund to screen residents from some of the new developments in the airport. With the ink barely dry on the agreement, the work has started this year. With regard to air noise Gatwick is working with airlines to encourage them to operate the quietest types of aircraft.