A leading figure in the aviation sector believes the UK would reap the rewards of major expansion work at Gatwick and Stansted airports.

Chief executive of Gatwick Stewart Wingate has urged the Airports Commission - an organisation tasked with assessing the best ways to enhance the nation's airport capacity - to sanction the introduction of a second runway at the Sussex site, the Guardian reports.

Gatwick - which revealed this week (June 25th) that it accommodated 34.2 million passengers in the year ending March 31st 2013 - wants to be in a position to start building another runway by 2019.

Mr Wingate thinks an extension of Heathrow is unfeasible because of the noise pollution this would cause, while plans to build a brand new hub airport in the Thames Estuary are flawed. He suggested that London would be best served having three two-runway airports (Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow).

"Times have really changed. I don't think people are necessarily looking at expansion of Gatwick as a bad thing," he told the news provider.