Transatlantic routes provide Gatwick record March
London Gatwick experienced its busiest March on record last month, +2.5% on last year, with a total of 3.5 million passengers passing through the airport.
With long-haul routes +23.2% year-on-year, March also saw Gatwick once again adding to its global connectivity, launching two new long-haul routes to Austin and Chicago, as well as announcing Qatar Airways’ impending new service to Doha.
The airport’s 61st consecutive month of growth saw a considerable percentage increase in passengers travelling to the United States and Canada, up 37% on March last year. Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles saw large percentage increases, +83.1% and +53.4% respectively, along with Toronto, which was +13.5%.
Gatwick’s Asia routes continued to grow in March too, with passengers to Hong Kong +67% year-on-year. A number of African destinations also performed well – Casablanca +82.9% and Banjul +57.6%.
With Gatwick’s long-haul route network growing rapidly, and its global connectivity continuing to strengthen even further, the volume of cargo handled by the airport also continues to thrive. Cargo tonnage grew by 21.7% in March.
Elsewhere, Gatwick’s short-haul business route network continued to expand in March, with easyJet announcing a new thrice-daily service to Berlin Tegel, due to launch this May.
Gatwick Airport, Chief Executive Officer, Stewart Wingate said: “Having celebrated five consecutive years of growth back in February, March’s figures continue Gatwick’s global connectivity success story.
“Passenger demand for our transatlantic routes continues to boom with new services to Austin and Chicago with Norwegian starting in March – along with British Airways adding further capacity to Toronto with their new thrice-weekly service.
“As our performance in March demonstrates, Gatwick is playing an increasingly important role for the country on the world stage, providing global connectivity at a time when the UK really needs it. We have exciting plans for future growth at the airport, maximising the use of our existing facilities whilst continuing to offer the country the prospect of a financeable and deliverable new runway scheme.”