Gatwick sees three years of consecutive growth
Norwegian’s new route to Boston - starting last month - brought forward by two months, due to demand, is the first of Gatwick’s 20 long-haul routes this summer. New routes will be arriving this summer include Hong Kong, Cape Town, Vancouver, Lima and Costa Rica (the UK’s only direct route).
This March, long-haul routes performed particularly strongly, +9.6% year on year, driven by North Atlantic routes +19.3% including Los Angeles +62.8%, Toronto +60.3% and Vancouver +35.8%.
European routes seeing strong growth this month included the Canary Islands (Fuerteventura) 38.6%, Venice 32.8% and Iceland 30.8%.
An additional 170,930 passengers travelled through Gatwick Airport in March compared to the same month in 2015. Average load factors were 83.8%.
Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate said: “Three years of consecutive month and month growth shows Gatwick continues to provide what our passengers want - more choice and better value to a greater range of destinations. Our 20 new routes this summer, including Hong Kong, Cape Town, Vancouver, Lima and Costa Rica, are a resounding endorsement of the airport, from our existing carriers plus new airlines including Cathay Pacific and WestJet.
“An expanded Gatwick would build on this momentum and deliver yet more competition and choice for passengers - only last week Norwegian pledged 50 Dreamliners to a two-runway Gatwick which would transform the UK long-haul market.
“Government backing for Gatwick expansion this year will mean that the UK finally and definitively has a solution to its long enduring aviation capacity issue. Our plan is legal, affordable, cleaner and quieter and will finally deliver for Britain.”