Gatwick grows +4% to 3.3m in ‘busiest’ April
By Doug Newhouse |
London Gatwick Airport has reported its busiest-ever April period, with passenger numbers up +4% to 3.3m, compared with the same period a year earlier.
Gatwick management says long-haul routes continued to perform well +6.0% in April, with British Airways launching the UK’s only direct routes to Costa Rica and Lima, from Gatwick and Easter holiday destinations performing strongly.
The latter included routes to Split, Croatia (+87%); Valencia (+48%); Phuket (+34%); and Tenerife (+26%). Meanwhile, domestic routes also performed well during April, with Belfast +85%, Newquay +28% and Inverness +21%. Average load factors were also reported to be ‘consistently strong’ at 83%.
Transatlantic growth has also continued, with 20 new routes opening at the airport this year, including Canadian airline WestJet launching 28 weekly flights to Canada, followed by a daily Air Canada Rouge service to Toronto later this month.
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Airport management says that the arrival of these two new Canadian airlines to the airport follows the strong performance of North Atlantic routes in April (+20% year-on-year), including New York routes (+162%) and Los Angeles (+135%).
Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate commented: “Gatwick’s 28 new flights to Canada from WestJet, plus the UK’s only connections to Chinese growth markets Chongqing and Tianjin next month, clearly show that Gatwick can deliver the crucial new long-haul routes the UK needs.”
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