London Gatwick traffic results for June 2013
London Gatwick traffic results for June 2013
10-Jul-2013
- Passenger traffic up by 3.3% compared to the prior year
- Passengers flying to the Middle East and Africa increased by 13% and to Europe by 5%
- Load factors at a record high for the month at 86.1%
| Month | Moving Annual Total | |||||||
| Growth | Jul-12 | Jul-11 | Growth | |||||
| Jun-13 | Jun-12 | (%) | Jun-13 | Jun-12 | (%) | |||
| Total terminal passengers (000s) | 3,446.4 | 3,334.9 | 3.3% | 34,596.8 | 33,961.6 | 1.9% | ||
| Market Analysis: | ||||||||
| UK + Channel Islands | 333.0 | 341.1 | (2.4)% | 3,816.0 | 3,802.3 | 0.4% | ||
| Ireland | 109.1 | 112.7 | (3.2)% | 1,266.6 | 1,292.6 | (2.0)% | ||
| European scheduled | 1,926.6 | 1,819.5 | 5.9% | 18,807.8 | 18,119.9 | 3.8% | ||
| European charter | 517.2 | 517.0 | 0.0% | 4,094.2 | 4,375.8 | (6.4)% | ||
| North Atlantic | 168.7 | 192.1 | (12.2)% | 1,757.3 | 1,924.9 | (8.7)% | ||
| Other long haul | 391.8 | 352.6 | 11.1% | 4,855.0 | 4,446.1 | 9.2% | ||
| Air transport movements | 22,836 | 22,530 | 1.4% | 239,580 | 241,481 | (0.8)% | ||
| Cargo (metric tonnes) | 8,951 | 8,275 | 8.2% | 100,708 | 90,012 | 11.9% | ||
Note: Origins and destinations are classified according to ultimate origin or destination of aircraft in the case of multi-sector flights.
More than 3.4 million passengers passed through London Gatwick in June 2013 - 111,000 more passengers than the prior year. This indicates a return to more modest growth from the levels seen in May, but reflects the recent introduction of new routes and airlines to London Gatwick.
Growth of 4.6% on European scheduled and charter routes resulted in 107,000 more passengers travelling to destinations such as Barcelona and Malaga as well as business destinations including Copenhagen and Luxembourg. This growth was achieved through the use of larger planes and increased frequencies.
Notably, Norwegian's recent decision to base two aircraft at London Gatwick (which will rise to three in the autumn) accounts for more than half of the growth in European travel. In addition, the introduction of easyJet's new Moscow route added an additional 16,000 passengers compared to the prior year.
The loss of traffic to North America, down 12.2%, is mainly due to US Airways ceasing services from London Gatwick earlier in the year.
Other long haul growth is up 11.1% or 39,000 passengers, with connections to Dubai accounting for a quarter of the increase. This growth is despite the withdrawal of Korean Air and Hong Kong Airlines earlier in the year.
The fall in domestic traffic is attributed to British Airways' withdrawal from the Manchester route and Flybe's from the Aberdeen route.
Load factors - showing how full the average flight was - were at 86.1%. This was a record for the month and 1.7 percentage points higher than the prior year.
Other news in June included:
- easyJet announced a new four times a week service to the Romanian capital, Bucharest. easyJet has chosen London Gatwick as the only UK airport to offer this destination on its network, with flights commencing on 17 October.
- London Gatwick is delighted to welcome another new airline - SWISS, which will fly three times a week to Geneva from winter 2013. In addition to fares from as low as £33, SWISS is one of only a few airlines which carry skis and snowboards for no extra charge.
- Thomson brought the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Gatwick for the first time ahead of scheduled services commencing to Cancun and Florida in July and Phuket in November.
Nick Dunn, Chief Financial Officer, London Gatwick, said: "Gatwick achieved modest growth in June. This marked a return to the more restrained growth of earlier in the financial year, which is to be expected given the continuing strong economic headwinds. The small rise we saw this month was largely due to new airlines and routes which have started from Gatwick this year.
"Business destinations in particular continue to grow, with increased services to Scandinavia, Luxembourg and Copenhagen being introduced. easyJet's new route to Moscow, which commenced earlier this year, continues to attract healthy passenger numbers thanks to the competitive rates on offer for both business and leisure travellers."