London Gatwick welcomes new Air Peace service to Abuja as airport celebrates record-breaking summer for African travel
- Air Peace will now fly from London Gatwick to Abuja three times per week
- Passengers can now fly from London Gatwick to 21 destinations across Africa, including Lagos, Nairobi and Entebbe
- Q3 saw London Gatwick welcome a record number of passengers travelling to Africa
London Gatwick is strengthening its position as a key gateway to Africa with a new direct service to Abuja, Nigeria, operated by Air Peace.
The route, which took off yesterday (28 October), marks Air Peace’s second connection from London Gatwick, joining its daily Lagos service which began in March 2024. The airline will now fly to Abuja three times a week from London Gatwick’s South Terminal, offering seamless access for business and leisure travellers.
This expansion comes as London Gatwick celebrates a record-breaking summer for African travel. In Q3 alone, more than 670,000 passengers flew to 20 destinations across the continent, with a 9% increase on 2024 numbers and more than 96% growth compared with 2019.
With Abuja now added to the departure boards, London Gatwick passengers can connect directly to 21 African destinations, including Nairobi, Entebbe and Addis Ababa, reinforcing the airport’s growing role in supporting international trade, tourism and diaspora travel.
Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, London Gatwick said: “Air Peace’s growing presence at London Gatwick demonstrates not only the success of its popular Lagos service, but also the airline’s commitment to meeting demand for greater connectivity between London and Africa.
“This new service will be a huge benefit to the vast Nigerian diaspora across London and the South East, alongside passengers travelling to West Africa for business and leisure.”
Nowel Ngala, Chief Commercial Officer, Air Peace said: “We’re incredibly proud to expand our UK operations with the launch of the Abuja service from London Gatwick. This milestone reinforces Air Peace’s commitment to deepening Nigeria–UK connectivity while advancing our vision of seamless air travel between Africa and the rest of the world.
“Beyond offering non-stop flights to Nigeria, passengers enjoy convenient multi-city connections within Nigeria on a single ticket, generous baggage allowance and competitive fares complemented by warm Nigerian hospitality and intercontinental cuisine.
“This new route will further strengthen trade, tourism and cultural ties between both nations and provide the Nigerian diaspora with even greater access to home.”
Time period | Destinations | Passenger numbers |
July - September 2024 | Africa (long-haul) | 158k |
July - September 2025 | 188k | |
July - September 2024 | Africa (short-haul) | 411k |
July - September 2025 | 431k |
With 43m annual passengers, London Gatwick is the UK’s second largest and one of Europe’s top ten airports. It is a vital piece of national infrastructure that drives both the national and regional economies by generating £5.5bn GVA and supporting over 76,000 jobs (2023). Almost 60 airlines fly from the airport to over 150 short-haul and more than 50 long-haul destinations. With a declared capacity of 55 movements an hour, London Gatwick is the most efficient single runway airport in the world.
The airport is located 28 miles south of the UK capital and is extremely well-connected, with more than a quarter of England’s population (15m people) – including all of London – less than one hour away by road or rail.A six-year, £2bn sustainable growth programme includes an ambitious plan to be a net zero airport by 2030 and to increase capacity by bringing the airport’s existing Northern Runway into routine use, alongside its Main Runway. VINCI Airports owns a 50.01% stake in the airport, with Global Infrastructure Partners managing the remaining 49.99%.
VINCI Airports, as the leading private airport operator in the world, manages the development and operation of more than 70 airports located in 14 countries. VINCI Airports draws on its expertise as a comprehensive integrator to develop, finance, build and operate airports, leveraging its investment capability and know-how to optimise operational performance and modernise infrastructure while bringing about their environmental transition. In 2016, VINCI Airports became the first airport operator to commit to an international environmental strategy, setting itself the aim of reaching zero net emissions (scope 1 and 2) across the network by 2050 while supporting the territories’ local climate transition.
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Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of BlackRock, is a leading infrastructure investor that specializes in investing in, owning and operating some of the largest and most complex assets across the energy, transport, digital infrastructure and water and waste management sectors. With energy pragmatism central to our investment thesis, we are well positioned to support the global energy transition.
GIP’s scaled platform has over $170bn in assets under management. We believe that our focus on real infrastructure assets, combined with our deep proprietary origination network and comprehensive operational expertise, enables us to be responsible stewards of our clients’ capital and to create positive economic impact for communities. For more information, visit www.global-infra.com.
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London, UK, 27 October 2025
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