As well as being the Lunar New Year, easyJet is breaking out the party poppers as it celebrate 20 years of operating out of London Gatwick.
easyJet started at Gatwick on the 1st February 2002, with just a handful of routes – the first being Barcelona on 1st February 2002 which was later joined by new routes to Edinburgh, Zurich, Malaga and Palma throughout the same month. Previously, flying had only been inbound from its bases in Geneva, Nice and Amsterdam.
The first flight was operated by a London Gatwick-based crew on a Boeing 737 aircraft which departed at 11:15 on 1st February 2002 with 137 passengers on board.
Since then, things have changed, with easyJet migrating to an Airbus A320 family fleet (consisting of the A319, A320ceo, A320neo and A321neo). The network has grown too, making easyJet to be the largest airline operating out of Gatwick, as well as its largest base
The airline will operate 79 aircraft from the airport next summer and now serves over 120 routes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
easyJet flew around 19m passengers to and from the airport in 2019 and continues to grow. The airline has just added over 1.1 million additional seats on sale from the airport for next summer.
In Quotes
Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager said:
“easyJet is delighted to be celebrating 20 years at our London Gatwick base, our largest base in the network. Over the last two decades we have remained committed to providing even more choice for our customers travelling to and from the airport, growing our operation to become Gatwick’s largest airline.
“And we remain focussed on growth at Gatwick; we recently added over a million extra seats from the airport for next summer and new routes such as our new flights to Krk off the coast of Croatia, continuing to provide passengers with an ever-greater range of destinations all with a convenient schedule, low fares and great service for both leisure and business travellers.
“Now is a great time to book with easyJet. We are excited about our plans at Gatwick for next summer, and we can’t wait to welcome more customers back onboard.”
Stephanie Wear, Vice President of Airline Development, Gatwick Airport, said:
“easyJet and Gatwick have grown together over the last 20 years and, since that first flight to Barcelona, we have helped millions of passengers go on holiday, visit friends and family or take an important business trip. The events of the last two years make today’s 20th anniversary of easyJet at Gatwick even more poignant and it feels fantastic that together we can once again offer our passengers the opportunity to enjoy the delights of so many destinations across Europe and beyond.”
Going onwards
easyJet plans more destinations for Summer 21 – after a rather trying 24 months. As the airline continues to battle through the list of changing entry requirements, as well as passenger ebbs and flows, it will be interesting to see how the network hold up over the season.
And what further actions they may need to take.
Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, featuring in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.
Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can follow me on Instagram too!
Also remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news from around the world.
