Passenger numbers at Gatwick Airport up by 4% in June

10 July 2012

June 2012 traffic performance summary

Note: Origins and destinations are classified according to ultimate origin or destination of aircraft in the case of multi-sector flights.

Figures for the market sectors have been rounded. Totals as per traffic summary.

Key Points:

• 129,000 more passengers flew through Gatwick in June compared to the same month in the prior year, representing a 4% growth in passenger numbers.
  • Traffic on scheduled services to Europe was up by 8.2% due to strong growth from existing airlines, although charter traffic to the same region continues to decline
  • New airlines operating routes to the Asian market helped to increase passenger numbers in this sector by 16.6%
  • The later school half term holiday, which fell in June this year, also helped boost year-on-year growth rates
• Planes continue to fly fuller out of Gatwick with average load factors of 84.4% - up 1.7 percentage points on the prior year.
• Air traffic movements were also up by 0.6% year-on-year due to growth by Gatwick based low cost operators and new long haul operators.
• The airport welcomed Caribbean Airlines on the 14^th June which started a twice weekly service to Port of Spain, becoming the airport’s ninth new airline to start operations since the start of the last winter season (end of Oct11).

Commenting on Gatwick Airport’s strong traffic performance in June, Nick Dunn, the airport’s Chief Financial Officer said: “A four per cent growth in passenger numbers for June starts the summer season on a good note. More important however are the year-on-year increases in average load factors that we are seeing at Gatwick. As we look to achieve sustainable growth from our single runway over the next decade and grow our passenger numbers by a third it is critical that we remain focused on operating our airfield efficiently. Flying fuller planes will help contribute to that sustainable growth, as will adding larger planes to the aircraft mix and facilitating more plane movements per hour – all of which we are pushing hard to deliver.

“It is also good to report that our new long-haul carriers serving important high growth economies are performing well and supporting growth in the long-haul markets generally.”