Gatwick wins Airport of the Year
Gatwick beat six other airports to win Airport of the Year at a ceremony on Thursday (12 Oct) hosted by Alastair Campbell, following a key note speech by Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling.
Gatwick won the award for transforming the airport with a £2.7 billion investment programme, doing so while also maintaining strong customer service and for its Airline Moves project, which saw Gatwick’s three biggest airlines seamlessly switch terminals over a 72 hour period.
Separately, Gatwick’s world-first waste plant won the Outstanding Sustainability Programme award at Airports Going Green – the aviation ‘industry’s leading sustainability platform’ – with the award due to be presented in Dallas, Texas, next month.
The new waste management plant makes Gatwick the first airport in the world able to turn Category 1 airline waste – such as food and packaging - into energy onsite, removing the need to transport it for specialist incineration or deep landfill storage.
In addition, the integrated dry waste sorting centre has lifted the airport’s recycling rate to 64% (June 2017) – the best rate for any UK airport. By reusing water consumption has reduced by 2 million litres per annum, with waste related vehicle journeys also falling by 50%, reducing carbon emissions.
Gatwick was also singled out by the judges of Digital Impact Awards on Tuesday night (17 Oct) for one of the coveted ‘Special Awards’ – Digital In-house Team of the Year – with the airport’s innovative ‘Community App’ also winning Best Corporate App.
Gatwick – like other airports – is a community formed of a wide variety of businesses and Gatwick’s ‘Community app’ is a smartphone-based platform that gives the airport’s entire workforce easy access to real time information about airport issues.
The judges said that “Gatwick has transformed the way it does business by developing an industry-first application designed to keep the entire airports workforce in tune.”
Over 200 organisations operate at Gatwick, including airlines, ground handlers, government agencies, retailers, restaurants etc. The judges continued: “Gatwick's Airport Community app was seen as ‘a remarkable innovation, making it possible to share information across the airport's complete workforce in real time. The app has really taken off and now has more than 10,000 users, with the number increasing every month. It has become a crucial aspect of improving operational efficiency, ensuring no time is wasted and the airport runs smoothly and on schedule.
Gatwick pioneered the 'Community app' concept which has since been adopted by over ten other airports across the world.
Chris Woodroofe, Chief Operating Officer, Gatwick Airport, said: “These awards recognise the professionalism and effort our staff put in to ensure that our passengers receive the best experience possible. They also recognise the £2.7 billion investment Gatwick has made to transform the airport, which now ranks among the best airports in the world. We will continue to invest in new facilities, the latest IT innovations and initiatives that will see us become the greenest airport in the UK.
“The effort we have put in to transform Gatwick is paying dividends and we are serving more passengers than ever before and now offer them a choice of over 60 long haul routes – a world record for a single runway airport. Our growing long haul network also provides UK businesses with fast access to markets outside Europe given most airfreight is carried in the hold of long haul passenger flights.”
