Passenger numbers increase at Gatwick
The gain was made in spite of the earlier Easter break, which meant that a significant proportion of Easter holiday related traffic was seen in March.
Gatwick’s load factors - showing how full the average flight was - were at 80.2%, 0.3 percentage points lower than the prior year.
Across the month, Gatwick saw a 1.7% rise in the number of passengers (9,700 more passengers) flying to long-haul markets including Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. However, there was a decline in passengers travelling to North America following the withdrawal of services by US Airways and Delta.
There was also a 3.2% growth in scheduled European services with 48,800 more passengers flying to destinations across Europe. Notable increases were on Barcelona and Stockholm routes, flying 36,000 and 10,000 more passengers, respectively.
However, following the trend of previous months, there was a decline in European chartered traffic of 11.4%.
Domestic traffic also saw a decline following British Airway’s withdrawal from the Manchester route.
April was also a good month for airline expansion, with Vietnam Airlines, the country’s flagship carrier, adding a fifth weekly service for the summer season to Ho Chi Mihn City, Turkish Airlines expanded its services to Istanbul's Ataturk airport and now Sabiha Gokcen airport, whilst Norwegian Air Shuttle launched 12 new routes across Europe and increased frequencies on Scandinavian routes to include more early morning services for business travellers.
Nick Dunn, Gatwick Airport’s chief financial officer, said: “It is pleasing to see the trend for long haul growth continuing at London Gatwick, with several key carriers expanding their frequencies and routes this month. This activity highlights the strength of Gatwick’s offering to its airlines and showcases the routes to key emerging markets that we are able to support.
“While this month also saw growth in scheduled European services, largely thanks to new airlines such as Vueling and the expansion of Norwegian Air Shuttle, it is also important to note that economic conditions in Europe remain challenging and we expect this trend to continue for the immediate future.”
