Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 18:35:39 on Wed, 12
Oct 2011, Richard J. remarked:
We're all getting confused here. Bruce claimed that 08L/26R was really
just a taxiway because:

- it could be used as a runway only in emergencies. Not true: it is
used whenever 08R/26L is unavailable, e.g. during maintenance. 08L/26R
is routinely in use as the operational runway for 3 hours every
Thursday morning if no runway maintenance is scheduled for that week.

- absence of ILS. True, but nevertheless it has full ICAO designation
as a runway.

- absence of proper taxiways when it's in use as a runway. As Alistair
Gunn pointed out (but his post was misinterpreted by Graeme and
Charles), there is an additional taxiway to the north of 08L which
functions as a taxiway at all times (shown as Taxiway J on the
aerodrome chart).

Confused, yes some might be. But don't miss the essential point that
when people say Gatwick is a "one runway" airport, what that means is
"only one runway in operation at any particular time".


Gatwick is a one runway airport with a parallel taxiway that can be
pressed into service as an emergency runway in a severely limited
range of conditions. It is not routinely used.

But it won't matter how many times you are told that, will it? You
will continue spouting the same nonsense, because you are Roland
Perry, and the Gatwick airport on your planet has two runways. ;-)