Gatwick Airport to drop capacity limits

During the first half of the year, Gatwick has revised its traffic forecasts for 2022 to 32.8m passengers as a result of increased demand. The increased demand created significant operational challenges across the entire aviation sector, which Gatwick felt.  In response, Gatwick took early action to ensure reliable flight timetables by gradually increasing its declared capacity and adding over 400 new security staff to reduce delays.

With these additional resources in place, Gatwick airport sees that it no longer has to ask airlines to adjust their flying programmes and can return to normal operation.

Of course, this can’t help short-notice issues such as limits placed because staff shortages were reported today (23rd August).

Rebuilding the long-haul network

Over the timetable, Gatwick Airport has seen its long-haul network grow with 40 routes now announced, including new airlines such as Norse Atlantic adding  New York to its network and Bamboo flying Hanoi.

Meanwhile, British Airways is starting a new service to Cape Town and jetBlue adding a new daily service to Boston, in addition to their daily flight to New York.

WestJet and Air Transat currently also fly to a range of destinations across Canada, while both British Airways and TUI fly numerous other long-haul services to the US, Mexico and the Caribbean.

In Quotes

Stewart Wingate, Chief Executive Officer, Gatwick Airport said:

“We still have some way to go, but strong demand has fast-tracked Gatwick’s recovery from the pandemic, particularly in the last quarter since all UK travel restrictions were removed. Air traffic volumes have reflected this strong passenger demand and have bounced back to around 75% of pre-COVID levels. 

“The unprecedented growth in traffic led to short term operational issues in June, however our decisive early action to limit the airport’s capacity in the crucial school holiday period of July and August has ensured passengers have experienced reliable flight timetables over the summer months. We are now very much operating business as usual and do not see any reason to extend the capacity declaration.”

“Despite some broad economic uncertainty, we are also looking forward to a successful second half to the year, with new, exciting airlines and routes coming online and continuous improvement in the high service standards Gatwick is known for.”

Winter will be key

As we exit the busy summer holiday period, it’s good to see that Gatwick has managed to put in place the staffing it needs to deliver its services – hopefully, these will not be let go as we head into the quieter season.

With the economic challenges as well, there could be further headwinds the airport could run into.

For now, Gatwick continues to thrive and offers a reasonable option for airlines that are not married to running out of Heathrow Airport only.