ON THE SOAPBOX: Stewart Wingate, CEO, London Gatwick Airport

As the summer period for London Gatwick wraps up, it is important to reflect on a busy period and our performance as we look forward to the coming year.

I am pleased to say we’ve continued to rebuild from the pandemic and our passenger numbers reflect we are well on the way to building back to pre-pandemic numbers. This has been made possible through the hard work of frontline colleagues to ensure we are operating well and getting our passengers’ trips off to a great start. We have a professional and dedicated team and I thank them for all their efforts.

Returning to 50 long-haul routes this summer was a milestone for us. While we’re delighted to offer passengers such an expansive range of short-haul routes across Europe, we’re also proud to provide connections to an increasing range of destinations around the world.  More than 50 airlines now fly from London Gatwick to over 200 worldwide destinations.

These services are vital, not only for offering people across London and the South East an excellent choice of holiday locations, or for visiting family and friends, but also for supporting local and regional businesses. Whether that’s outbound trade or inbound tourism, growing London Gatwick’s long-haul network is crucial for economic opportunities across the region. 

Our airline expansion shows that passenger demand for travel continues to grow. We recently announced a strong financial performance for the first half of 2023, demonstrating our success despite a challenging operational environment.

There has been a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes as well. We were proud to launch a refreshed brand and vision in the first half of the year, strengthening our focus on simplifying the passenger journey.

Accompanying this is an exciting multi-million-pound development programme. This significant programme of investment includes the expansion and refurbishment of the North Terminal departure lounge to create more modern, appealing spaces for passengers, while at the same time considering the airport’s vital sustainability goals.

It will also focus on accelerating automation in cutting-edge improvements across check-in and boarding, as well as enhanced airfield technology. A multi-million-pound upgrade of Gatwick Airport railway station is also on-track for completion later this year.  

However, unfortunately this summer we saw a greater number of air traffic control restrictions than normal, across large parts of Europe, affecting on-time performance. Closer to home, and we are working closely with NATS to build resilience in Gatwick’s control tower to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.  New air traffic controllers have been recruited since last summer and others are due to start after completing their training.

We are working hard in other areas of the airport. London Gatwick is partnering with airlines and ground handlers to ensure aircraft are ready to go for the first wave of departures early in the morning and throughout the rest of the day.  

A further 200 security officers were recruited ahead of the busy summer period, which helped us get 98% of passengers through security in less than five minutes. I am proud to say we also hit 99.6% of all measured service level requirements during the period.

Now is also a crucial time for Gatwick’s growth. Our application to bring the Northern Runway into routine use, alongside the Main Runway, was accepted for examination by the Planning Inspectorate on 3 August 2023. 

By investing in our long-term future London Gatwick will also enhance the crucial economic role we play, by creating around 14,000 new jobs and injecting £1 billion into the region’s economy every year. This growth would come from increased jobs and activity on the airport site, as well as the wider benefits of tourism, trade, supply chain, and other business opportunities. 

Our forward-looking and low-impact plan aims to leverage the airport’s existing infrastructure to unlock new capacity and improve airport resilience, in line with current government policy.

London Gatwick is a busy place, full of opportunity. Our vision? To be the airport for everyone, whatever your journey.

Stewart Wingate, CEO, London Gatwick

www.gatwickairport.com

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