R&R Life News
Gatwick bosses hail last year as one of "consistent passenger growth"
2:16pm Wednesday 1st February 2012
Bosses at Gatwick Airport have hailed the last year as one of “consistent passenger growth.”
For Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL) said last December marked 12 consecutive months of year-on-year growth in passenger numbers.
Excluding the impact of last year's snow disruption, GAL said passenger traffic was up by 4.3% last December.
The month also saw Gatwick achieve record average load factors of 76.4% - up 2.9% on the 2010 figure.
Gatwick Airport's performance during last December saw passenger numbers up by 19.8% year-on-year, with 375,255 more passengers flying through Gatwick. Excluding the impact of last year's snow disruption, the traffic increase of 4.3% was estimated at 281,000 passengers.
GAL said the record average load factor increase reflected strong performance recorded on short-haul and domestic routes.
A spokesman said: “Underlying growth and strong load factor performance were particularly evident across the domestic and European routes of some major carriers.”
Gatwick commenced new routes with Vietnam Airlines' first direct flight between the UK and Vietnam from December 9, and with Turkish Airlines operating a daily flight to Istanbul from December 20.
Korean Air has announced a three times a week daily service from Gatwick to Seoul commencing on April 29.
Hong Kong Airlines will be operating a daily business class service to Hong Kong from March 8, and Air China will begin a four times a week operation between Gatwick and Beijing from May.
The spokesman said: “Regrettably, AirAsia X is withdrawing its services to Europe - London, Paris - and India – Mumbai, Delhi - from its Kuala Lumpur hub. “Their decision is based on the continued high fuel prices in 2011, weakening economic conditions in Europe and the impact of Air Passenger Duty alongside the Emissions Trading Scheme carbon tax in the UK, which will result in the withdrawal of operations at Gatwick on March 31.”
Gatwick Airport is the UK's second largest airport and the busiest single-runway airport in the world.
It serves more than 200 destinations in 90 countries for around 32 million passengers a year on short and long-haul point-to-point services.
It is also a major economic driver for the South-east, generating around 23,000 on-airport jobs and a further 13,000 jobs through related activities.
It is owned by a group of international investment funds, of which Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is the largest shareholder.