Gatwick airport is experiencing what it calls one of its busiest summers, with 19.9 million passengers travelling through its two terminals during the first half of the year.
Passenger numbers at the UK’s second largest airport were 7.7 per cent higher than in the same period last year.
The airport reported revenues of £488 million during the first six months of 2024, up 15.3 per cent from the first half of 2023, while pre-tax profits climbed 36 per cent to £136.3 million.
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Overall passenger numbers remain 10 per cent lower in the first half of 2024 compared with the same period in 2019.
For long-haul flights it has been a poor recovery. There were 30 per cent fewer passengers than before the pandemic, with 3 million long-haul passengers in the first half of the year, compared with 4.3 million during the same period in 2019.
“Some of the slots we previously used for long haul at Gatwick have actually been used by short-haul carriers,” Stewart Wingate, the airport’s chief executive, said. “In the future it’s likely that those slots transition back to long-haul carriers, which is why we continue the work to grow the long-haul network.”
Since the unravelling of Covid-era travel restrictions, Gatwick has increased its range of long-haul flights. In recent years, it has focused on increasing flights by Indian, Chinese and other Asian airlines.
The airport continues to have “a strong short-haul network”, with 16.9 million people travelling on short-haul flights during the first six months of the year, 5.6 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels.
“The airport is also continuing to build on its network of short-haul flights and in the second half of this year we expect our short-haul passenger volumes will be higher than the volumes before the pandemic,” Wingate said.
Gatwick is awaiting government approval to bring its emergency northern runway into routine use. Wingate remained upbeat about the expansion plans as the airport awaits a verdict from the planning inspectorate next week.
“If we get government approval in quarter one of next year, we could see the runway utilised before the end of the decade,” Wingate said.
If approved, the £2.2 billion project would allow the airport to expand to 75 million passengers annually by the late 2030s. Last year 40.9 million passengers travelled through the airport.