Gatwick achieves 21st consecutive month of growth
Long haul continues to play a key role in Gatwick’s growth with an increase of 9.9% - thanks mainly 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.
Gatwick’s ability to provide routes to emerging markets continues to be an area of growth 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.
European travel continues to perform strongly with an increase of 113,000 passengers in November. Gatwick now serves 46 of the 50 top business destinations in Europe with Copenhagen, Paris and Brussels the fastest growing European destinations from Gatwick in November.
Gatwick’s growth comes as the airport has been officially accredited for ‘Airport Collaborative Decision Making’ (ACDM) – a process which allows Gatwick and third parties to share data allowing aircraft to turn around and take off quicker and more efficiently.
Gatwick’s accreditation for ACDM-55* means that the airport can operate 55 runway movements an hour – through November alone, ACDM-55 helped contribute to Gatwick achieving 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. Being accredited for our efforts to create a more efficient runway is also a significant milestone for Gatwick.
“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.”
