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Gatwick airport said it has been experiencing one of its “busiest summers”, as booming demand for air travel, along with new long-haul routes, has helped to drive up passenger growth by nearly 8 per cent in the first half of the year.
Stewart Wingate, the airport’s chief executive, also held out hope that the government would approve expansion plans. Wingate said he was “encouraged” by the new Labour government’s decision to sanction London City Airport’s plans to increase passenger numbers.
Gatwick hopes to secure government approval as early as next February to then bring its standby runway into full use as part of a £2.2bn project enabling it to handle up to 75mn passengers a year by the late 2030s.
The plans, which have been criticised by environmental groups and some locals, have been going through approval processes. A planning inspectorate examination of the proposals ends on Tuesday.
“We are getting to a critical stage where we are looking for that government support to expand,” said Wingate, adding that the expansion would bolster the airport’s resilience as well as enable it to attract new airlines.
His comments came as London’s second-largest airport said that around 19.9mn passengers had passed through the airport in the first six months to the end of June, up 7.7 per cent on the same period last year, and 90 per cent of 2019 levels.
Wingate said the hub’s performance had been “robust” for its extensive short-haul network, which is geared towards holiday travel to Europe, and that the next six months could be busier than before the Covid pandemic.
Gatwick’s long-haul network also grew, with traffic 23 per cent higher at 3mn in the first six months of the year. This was, however, still 29 per cent lower than in 2019. Several new long-haul services are due to start in the third quarter of 2024, including to Bengaluru, India, and Las Vegas, operated by Air India and Norse respectively.
Wingate played down concerns that the air traffic control delays of last summer might be repeated, when staff shortages led to major disruption. The airport subcontracts its air traffic control operations to Nats, the UK’s main air traffic manager, and between September 25 and October 15 last year, it was forced to cap flight numbers because of staff shortages at Nats.
“So far this year we’ve seen a normal operation, with good service levels from Nats. We’ve benefited from their work over the winter season and we’ve had a resilient operation so far,” he said.
Wingate said he expected just over 43mn passengers for the full year, with footfall to be back at pre-pandemic levels in 2025.
The rebound in passenger numbers helped boost revenues 15.3 per cent to £488mn in the six month period. Profit after tax was £106mn, up close to 34 per cent, year-on-year.
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