Small decline in passenger numbers at Gatwick in January

2013-02-11 — /travelprnews.com/ — Small decline in passenger numbers at Gatwick in January

• Traffic at Gatwick sees a slight drop against the prior year as economic conditions remain challenging and adverse weather impacts other UK airports
• New long-haul airlines serving Asia boosts growth in that market by 6.6%
• Over 2,096,000 passengers flew through Gatwick this month 

January 2013 traffic performance summary

Note: Origins and destinations are classified according to ultimate origin or destination of aircraft in the case of multi-sector flights.

Key points:

• There was a drop of -0.8% in passenger numbers on the prior year in spite of continuing challenging economic conditions and winter weather in January, which saw Gatwick make use of its £8m snow-clearing fleet to remain fully operational.
  • Gatwick continued to see growth in domestic (6,800 more passengers) and long-haul markets (21,900 more passengers).
  • The trend of achieving high load factors continues. Load factors in January of 74.9% were 1.3 percentage points higher than the prior year.
  • There was a decline in European scheduled and charter flights this month, as the challenging economic climate in Europe continues. 

This month:

• Garuda Indonesia announced that it has chosen Gatwick to operate six direct flights a week between London and Jakarta starting in winter 2013. This will make Gatwick the only UK airport to connect passengers directly to the largest economy in South East Asia.
• Korean Air announced the cancellation of its Gatwick-Seoul service – a sign of the challenging economic climate in the UK at present.
• Tickets for easyJet’s new route between Gatwick and Moscow went on sale in advance of the inaugural flight on Monday 18 March 2013. 

Gatwick Airport’s Chief Financial Officer Nick Dunn said:

“In January we saw a slight decline in the number of passengers travelling through Gatwick, which is a reflection of lower European traffic. However this was balanced with growth from long-haul airlines serving Asia.

“We are delighted that Garuda Indonesia has chosen Gatwick to operate a vital new direct route to a key high-growth business market. Jakarta is also a major hub airport for South East Asia, giving UK passengers even more access and choice to the region”