Gatwick Airport has reported passenger traffic +1.2%, turnover +4.2% to £538.9m ($832.5m) and a loss of £29.1m ($44.9m) for the year.

Airport management says the loss ‘reflects the asset-intensive nature of the business and the continued investment being made across the airport’.

It points to an investment across the airport of £226.7m ($350.2m) in the year ending March 2013 and Stewart Wingate, CEO, said he was happy with the retail performance: “In retail, we have seen good year-on-year results, which compare favourably to performance on the High Street.

“Thanks to the opening of Europe’s largest World Duty Free store in South Terminal and major updates in both South and North Terminal departure lounges, we have seen income per passenger increase.”

Apart from its modest traffic growth, the airport points to key highlights such as Air China and Turkish Airlines opening links to Beijing and Istanbul, alongside new routes from existing carriers such as easyJet to Moscow. Vietnam Airlines also expanded its services and Garuda Indonesia announced it will start Europe’s only direct route to Jakarta from October 2013.

Management also points out that Gatwick was the first major London airport to achieve 100% service quality targets for the year, which in turn delivered ‘record passenger satisfaction’.

IMPORTANT PROJECTS
Improvements during the course of the year included the complete resurfacing of the runway and taxiways, while the airport remained fully operational.

Other major projects have focused on improving the retail offerings in North Terminal, bringing in brands such as Jamie’s Italian. The total investment over the last five years is £938.5m ($1.450m/$1.4bn). Gatwick has also begun detailed work on the options for a new runway.

Submissions made to the Airports Commission this year include papers on Aviation Connectivity and the Economy, Making Best Use of Existing Capacity in the Short and Medium Term, and Aviation and Climate Change.

Gatwick has also submitted a ‘new deal’ to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It says that its proposed ‘Contracts and Commitments’ framework would be a landmark change from regulation and offer a better deal for both passengers and airlines.

 

 

 

IN LINE WITH EXPECTATIONS…
Stewart Wingate, CEO (shown here) said: “Although economic headwinds have remained strong, Gatwick has delivered financial results in line with expectations. This year we saw passenger growth of 1.2% and this compares favourably with our competitor airports. While our turnover has increased by 4.2% to £538.9 million and EBITDA improved by 2.5% to £227.1 million, the airport made a loss in the financial year of £29.1 million.

“We have also continued to invest heavily across the airport, spending £226.7m this year, to ensure our passengers enjoy a better experience every time they travel.

“We are proud of our excellent operational performance this year, particularly through major events such as the Olympics, and we are the only major London airport to have achieved 100% of our service quality targets. This led to record passenger satisfaction.”

Gatwick, which is now majority-owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, continues to be the UK’s second largest airport and the busiest single-runway airport in the world, serving more than 180 destinations in 90 countries.