Gatwick experiences 21 months of growth
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Gatwick achieved its 21st successive month of growth in November, with more than 2.4 million passengers flying through the airport. This was 5.8% up on last year, representing an additional 135,000 passengers, and Gatwick’s busiest ever November.
Long haul continues to play a key role in Gatwick’s growth with an increase of 9.9%, which management attributes to Norwegian Air’s low-cost flights to New York and Los Angeles. Other long haul growth saw travel to Dubai up 9.2% as passengers take advantage of the thrice-daily offering with Emirates.
Emerging markets continue to be an area of growth for Gatwick airport, with Turkey seeing 63,000 extra passengers. Long haul leisure destinations also proved popular with Orlando seeing an increase of 10.6% in passenger numbers.
Gatwick’s growth comes as the airport has been officially accredited for ‘Airport Collaborative Decision Making’ (ACDM), which allows Gatwick and third parties to share data allowing aircraft to turn around and take off quicker and more efficiently.
The airport can now operate 55 runway movements an hour, helping the airport to achieve 168 extra flights compared to the same period last year. The accreditation also means that Gatwick is now the largest single runway networked CDM** airport in the world.
Nick Dunn, chief financial officer at London Gatwick, said: “Twenty-one months of growth across a range of airlines and destinations is another telling reminder of the benefits of greater competition between London airports.
“But greater competition and efficiency can only take us so far and with Gatwick already unable to meet demand across much of the year, we are fast approaching full capacity.
“Gatwick is the only airport that presents both a clear need for more capacity and a clear plan for a new runway that can actually be delivered. As we approach a crucial year in the expansion debate, Gatwick remains the obvious and only deliverable solution to meet the UK’s needs.”
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