London Gatwick launched £30 million fund to improve airport’s resilience to flooding

• Gatwick accepts all the recommendations of the McMillan Report into flood resilience, disruption and passenger welfare
• A £5 million programme of activity has already started to improve the airport’s resilience to flooding
• Up to £30 million has been made available to help implement the report findings in full
• Significant focus will be given to improving the crucial area of passenger welfare

LONDON, 2014-2-28 — /Travel PR News/ — Following the unprecedented weather and the subsequent flooding that caused disruption to passengers at London Gatwick on Christmas Eve, David McMillan, a Non-Executive Director of Gatwick Airport, was commissioned by the Gatwick Airport Board to review the airport community’s response on the day. He was also asked to recommend clear actions the airport, airlines, baggage handlers and wider community should implement to ensure the airport becomes more resilient and responds more effectively in times of disruption.

Immediately following the events of Christmas Eve, in addition to offering £100 of high street vouchers to every passenger whose flight had been cancelled, Gatwick made £5 million available to fund further improvements in flood resilience. Projects already underway include installing new water storage chambers at critical points at the airport; enhancing resilience in the North Terminal basement to offer better protection to critical assets; and improving systems used to monitor pumping stations and river levels.

The McMillan Report has now been published, and London Gatwick today has accepted its recommendations in their entirety. Although the flooding that occurred was assessed as a 1 in 100 year event, the airport fully endorses the report’s recommendations as to the need to increase resilience and is announcing the setting aside of a resilience fund of up to £30 million. This will be invested as necessary following detailed implementation planning of David McMillan’s recommendations.

The airport is committed to implementing all the short-term actions which have been recommended by October this year, and we will be working closely with the Environment Agency and other relevant agencies on long-term flood planning for the airport. Alongside projects to better protect the airport and its assets from flooding, significant focus will also be given to improving the airport, airline and wider airport community’s Control and Command processes and to the crucial area of passenger welfare.

Stewart Wingate, Chief Executive Officer, London Gatwick, said: “We fully accept the recommendations of the McMillan Report and we have already started to take actions in light of his findings. There are clearly lessons that we and the airport community can learn from the events of Christmas Eve. It is important we now look to the future and make the necessary improvements to ensure the airport is more resilient to flooding. In addition, we will work with the airport community to improve all aspects of contingency planning, with a particular focus on passenger welfare in times of disruption.”

The full report can be read here.

Notes to Editors

The initial £5 million of investment forms part of the wider £30 million fund.

About operations on Christmas Eve 2013:

• South Terminal operations were not affected
• More than 70% of scheduled flights departed and 75% arrived
• Normal services resumed the following day

 

About Gatwick’s investment in flood defences:

• Since Gatwick’s change of ownership, Gatwick has invested more than £20 million on improving flood defences and reducing the risk of flooding.
• This includes a £4 million investment in the Environment Agency’s Upper Mole Flood Alleviation Scheme and £10 million Gatwick Stream Flood Attenuation Scheme.

 

David McMillan Biography

David McMillan is a non-executive Director of Gatwick Airport. He is Chair of the Board of Governors of the Flight Safety Foundation. He was Director General of Eurocontrol, which co-ordinates air traffic across 40 European states, from 2008 to 2012. Before that he was UK Director General of Civil Aviation at the Department of Transport and spoke for Europe on environmental issues at ICAO. Earlier in his career, he led for Government on the establishment of the NATS PPP and was Secretary to the RUCATSE study on airport capacity in South East England.

David started his career in the Diplomatic Service and is a fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Transport and the Royal Aeronautical Society.

 

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About Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport is the UK’s second largest airport and the busiest single-runway airport in the world. It serves more than 200 destinations in 90 countries for around 35 million passengers a year on short- and long-haul point-to-point services. It is also a major economic driver for the South-East region, generating around 23,000 on-airport jobs and a further 13,000 jobs through related activities. The airport is 28 miles south of London with excellent public transport links, including the Gatwick Express. Gatwick Airport is owned by a group of international investment funds, of which Global Infrastructure Partners is the largest shareholder.

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