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.

 

STRONG GROWTH

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.”