Gatwick Airport environmental report suggests improving air quality

Gatwick Airport has published results of its ‘Decade of Change’ report which tracked progress on a series of environmental targets including airport air quality.

The Gatwick Airport report entitled ‘Decade of Change’ tracked the airport’s progress through a series of environmental targets measured over time. Results reveal annual nitrogen dioxide levels at Gatwick fell from 32 to 31 micrograms per cubic metre in 2014 which is within the current legal limit of 40.

Gatwick continues to maintain its position regarding airport expansion stating, ‘Gatwick has never breached these legal air quality limits and has guaranteed to maintain this 100 percent record if it built a second runway – something it can do as it is located in a more sparsely populated area and also has one of the cleanest aircraft fleets in Europe.’

“Air quality is more relevant to the expansion debate than it has ever been”

In addition to airport air quality, the report suggests Gatwick is using less water, electricity and gas, and more passengers are using public transport to get to the airport. Furthermore, directly controlled carbon emissions also remained steady last year despite an 8 percent increase in passenger numbers – keeping the airport on track to achieve its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2020.

Commenting on the report Stewart Wingate, Gatwick CEO, said:“Today’s positive figures are further proof that Gatwick expansion can be delivered lawfully. Gatwick has operated within legal air quality limits for more than a decade and can guarantee that it will continue to meet these legal limits even with a second runway.

“Air quality is more relevant to the expansion debate than it has ever been. Illegal air quality has stopped expansion at Heathrow in the past. Given it is even worse today than ever it is hard to see how expansion could legally go ahead there with millions more car journeys – yet alone all the construction traffic.”

Gatwick Airport’s Decade of Change report can be viewed here.