London Gatwick saw four million passengers use the airport in August 2013 – up by nearly 200,000 compared to the prior year. Underlying growth however is closer to 2.5% as more people stayed at home in the UK last August to enjoy the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Passenger traffic on European routes continued to grow with over three million passengers choosing to fly from London Gatwick – an increase of 6.4% in the prior year. The top three European destinations were Spain, Italy and Greece.
This was complemented by growth on European business routes such as Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm, which added over 36,000 passengers. easyJet’s new Moscow route also continued to be popular with over 19,000 passengers flying there from London Gatwick in August.
The loss of traffic to North America, down 7.2%, was mainly due to US Airways ceasing services from London Gatwick earlier in the year.
Other long haul growth was up 8.1% with connections to Dubai accounting for a third of the increase. Traffic to Vietnam was also up 20.7%.
For domestic traffic, the launch of the Belfast route by Aer Lingus generated over 17,000 passengers but the withdrawal of the British Airways Manchester route offset this.
Load factors – showing how full the average flight was – were at 89.4%. This was a record for the month and 1.4 percentage points higher than the prior year.
Other news…
- Following the opening of ten new or refreshed shops in the South Terminal departure lounge, a new 6,000 sq ft Harrods fashion department store opened for business. The opening completed the first phase of Gatwick’s £21 million transformation of South Terminal retail.
- British Airways announced it will base a tenth Boeing 777 at Gatwick, offering additional services to the US and Caribbean.
- Comptoir Libanais confirmed it will open its first airport restaurant in the North Terminal departure lounge in autumn 2013.
Nick Dunn, Chief Financial Officer at London Gatwick said: “Gatwick saw four million passengers use the airport in August, mainly as a result of the busy school holiday period. However taking into account last year’s Olympics, which saw many people stay in the UK, the underlying growth of 2.5% paints a more accurate picture of the year-on-year increase in passenger numbers.
“This month we were delighted to announce that British Airways will base a tenth long haul aircraft at Gatwick, offering passengers even more choice of when to travel to key leisure destinations in the US and the Caribbean. This news comes as other long haul routes such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi continue to perform well, alongside key European services for business travellers in particular.”
© London Gatwick
