Gatwick traffic up in January on large rise in European journeys
MORE than 2.2m travellers passed through Gatwick Airport in January, up 6.6 per cent on the previous year as routes within Europe and to further afield got busier.
The south of London airport said yesterday that scheduled traffic to Europe was up 12.8 per cent to 1.19m passengers in the month, while domestic flights took 0.8 per cent fewer passengers.
Traffic on long-haul routes excluding North America rose 11.3 per cent to 460,200 passengers. Gatwick said tourist destinations including Thailand and Sri Lanka, as well as business links to Dubai, were proving popular.
Budget airline Norwegian’s cheap flights to the United States from this summer should help make up for Atlantic traffic that was lost when US Airways withdrew from the airport, Gatwick said.
The airport is trying to position itself as an alternative to Heathrow when it comes to new long-haul links. Gatwick has been shortlisted alongside Heathrow as the possible site of Britain’s next runway by the government’s airports commission.
“We saw steady growth to Europe in January, which is by far the dominant market for business and leisure passengers travelling from London and the south east,” said chief financial officer Nick Dunn.
“Alongside European growth however, we continue to see strong performance in long haul travel.”