A new video shows that an expanded Heathrow would mean 70 times more people would be affected by a new Heathrow runway than one at Gatwick.
Gatwick has released an animated video showing flightpaths over ‘highly populated’ areas of London that have never been flown over before.
The video shows new flightpaths into each airport side-by-side using Googlearth.
The new Heathrow flightpath would overfly 70 times more people than the new Gatwick flightpath, with Heathrow overflying 278,000 people compared to 3,800 at Gatwick.
Gatwick says the flightpath shown is one of several new ones that would fly over highly populated areas of London never flown over before including St. Johns Wood, Maida Vale, Kensington, Notting Hill, Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush.
The methodology can be viewed here.
The video has been published on the day Gatwick restated its pledge to both cap the number of people most affected by noise, and pay £1000 towards their council tax, should the airport win the green light to build a new runway.
The Airports Commission’s own research says that the noise impact of an expanded Heathrow will generate up to £25 billion in health costs over 60 years, and £1.5 billion for Gatwick.
Gatwick CEO, Stewart Wingate, said:
“The difference in noise impact between the two schemes is stark. We have to decide whether to ignore the views of a million Londoners whose health will be affected by constant noise, or expand Gatwick, the environmentally responsible option where we can cap the number most affected by noise.
“Gatwick’s new runway will deliver the same economic benefit faster and at half the cost, meaning we can finally reap the benefits of new capacity and demonstrate to the world that Britain is open for business.”
N.B. Image credit: gatwickobviously.com
