Gatwick Airport News
Gatwick Airport celebrates busiest ever month
Gatwick Airport has achieved the busiest single month in its 80 year history as 4.6 million passengers travelled through the airport in July. The figure represents a 6.9 per cent increase on the same month last year. Long-haul routes continue their impressive growth at the airport, growing 23 per cent collectively versus last July, against a backdrop of traffic growth stalling at other major European airports, as reported by the Airports Council International this week.
Gatwick set for busiest ever summer holiday season
Gatwick Airport is set to have a record-breaking summer with eight million passengers forecast to travel through the airport this holiday, up 6.6 per cent on summer 2015. During the summer holiday period the airport will welcome 50 per cent more passengers with children with 165,000 passengers travelling through during the busiest day this summer, August 14th, the busiest day ever for the airport.
London mayor calls for expansion of Gatwick Airport
The newly elected mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today visited Gatwick to hail the airport’s decision to boost its investment in the airport by an additional £200 million. Khan also underlined his support for the construction of a second runway at the airport. He called on the new prime minister, Theresa May, to support the capital’s economy by making a final decision on airport expansion in the south-east a top priority, and he urged that decision to be in favour of Gatwick.
Gatwick opens new North Terminal security area
Gatwick Airport has opened a new security area as part of its transformation of the North Terminal, following successful implementation of the technology in the South Terminal. The £36 million project is a major part of the airport’s growth strategy as investment in the state-of-the-art facility will halve the time it takes passengers to pass through security, while maintaining the strictest security measures, and allows Gatwick to screen up to 5,000 passengers per hour.
Air Transat boosts Canadian ski connections from London Gatwick
Air Transat is to increase flights to Toronto this winter by offering a daily service from November to April. This now means that the airline will fly year round daily flights to Canada’s largest city from London Gatwick during the key ski season.
Gatwick Airport reopens runway following safety fears closure
Gatwick Airport in London has reopened its main runway after a temporary closure over fears the surface had started to break up. The runway was closed at 15:38 on Sunday as a precaution.
easyJet opens maintenance hangar at Gatwick
easyJet has opened a new purpose built two bay hangar facility at London Gatwick Airport. The innovative hangar design, which is over 5,400 square metres and provides superior thermal properties reducing energy costs, was selected from market leader RUBB buildings.
Air Canada Rouge launches Toronto-Gatwick service
Air Canada has launched a new non-stop service between Toronto and London-Gatwick. The new service will operate daily with an Air Canada rouge Boeing 767-300ER. “London-Heathrow is already Air Canada’s largest international gateway with flights to eight Canadian cities, so we are pleased to expand to London-Gatwick in time for the summer, when millions of vacationers are travelling between Canada and the UK,” said Benjamin Smith, president, passenger airlines, Air Canada.
Gatwick Airport celebrates 80th anniversary of first commercial flight
Today, May 17th, marks the 80th anniversary of the very first commercial flight from Gatwick, to Paris. Since then the airport has grown to become the world’s most efficient single runway airport, with a flight taking off or landing nearly every minute, and this week has served 41 million passengers for the first time ever.
easyJet opens new check in at Gatwick
easyJet has opened its new check in area in the North Terminal at London Gatwick Airport. The fully automated bag drop facility for customers will help to reduce and eliminate check in queues. As a result of its introduction queue times have reduced by half and more than 90 per cent of easyJet passengers will wait less than five minutes at bag drop.
Heathrow offers latest concessions in pursuit of expansion
Heathrow has announced it will meet and, in most cases, seek to exceed the conditions set out in the UK Airports Commission’s recommendation for expansion. In July last year, the independent Airports Commission recommended expanding Heathrow, after a three year, £20 million study into the best option for maintaining the UK’s global aviation hub status.
Sofitel London Gatwick appoints Globy Ouseph as general manager
Sofitel London Gatwick has appointed Globy Ouseph as general manager of the 518 bedroom hotel, the only premium hotel directly linked to the North Terminal at London’s Gatwick Airport. With over 12 years’ experience in the hotel and hospitality industry, Ouseph joins Sofitel London Gatwick, managed and operated by Arora Hotels, from his most recent positon as hotel manager at the 605-room Sofitel London Heathrow, also part of the Arora Group.