Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 22:00:18 on
Wed, 12 Oct 2011, Charles Ellson remarked:

The "taxiway" runway is an alternative to the normal one when the
latter is closed for some reason.

So not alternate runways but primary and secondary.

Yes, the use alternates between the two.


Wrong. That wording suggests more or less equal use, when in fact the
emergency runway is rarely used. It serves only a subset of the
aircraft that use Gatwick, being too short for the rest, and can only
be used in a strictly limited range of conditions thanks to no ILS.

As the main taxiway is taken out of use when it is used as a runway
(let's not forget that it *is* the main taxiway) the airport becomes
barely functional because the capacity of the taxiway system is so
severely reduced.