Passenger numbers stay flat at Gatwick in July

• Traffic at Gatwick remains flat against prior year as the successful Games sees Britons stay at home
• Load factors remain high at 86.4%
• New long haul airlines serving Asia boosts growth in that market by 9.2%

July 2012 traffic performance summary

Month Moving Annual Total
Growth Aug-11 Aug-10 Growth
Jul-12 Jul-11 (%) Jul-12 Jul-11 (%)

Total terminal passengers (000s) 3,628.2 3,632.4 -0.1 33,966.5 32,895.1 3.3

Market Analysis:

UK + Channel Islands 350.9 359.1 -2.3 3,794.8 3,637.0 4.3
Ireland 118.6 130.8 -9.3 1,280.4 1,280.8 0.0
European scheduled 1,979.1 1,898.5 4.2 18,206.2 16,742.2 8.7
European charter 583.1 667.7 -12.7 4,292.2 4,691.1 -8.5
North Atlantic 203.3 216.2 -6.0 1,912.6 1,940.3 -1.4
Other long haul 393.2 360.1 9.2 4,480.3 4,603.7 -2.7

Air transport movements 23,913 23,938 -0.1 241,832 242,273 -0.2

Cargo (metric tonnes) 9,079 7,260 25.1 91,832 94,412 -2.7

Note: Origins and destinations are classified according to ultimate origin or destination of aircraft in the case of multi-sector flights.Figures for the market sectors have been rounded. Totals as per traffic summary.

Key Points:

• The Games resulted in passenger numbers down on the previous year by 0.1% - equating to a difference of around 4,000 passengers.
  
  • Traffic on scheduled services to Europe continued to increase versus the previous year but the growth rate of 4.2% is lower than previous months in 2012.
  • Charter traffic to the same region continues to decline and there was also a fall in passengers on domestic and Irish routes.
  • New airlines operating routes to the Asian markets helped to increase passenger numbers on long haul routes outside of the North Atlantic by 9.2%.
  • In early August, Hong Kong Airlines decided to suspend its all-business class flights to London from September 2012 following a review of its European strategy as a result of the continuing weak economic outlook in Europe.
• High average load factors continue to be achieved, being 86.4% in July which is comparable with the prior year
• Air traffic movements were flat on prior year with growth from Gatwick based low cost operators and new long haul operators offset by lower charter operations.
• Gatwick welcomed JAT Airlines on the 12th July which started a twice weekly service to Belgrade.

Commenting on Gatwick's traffic report for July, Nick Dunn, Chief Financial Officer at Gatwick Airport said: "We saw only a marginal drop in passenger traffic in July compared to last year. This is in line with industry expectations where fewer Britons were predicted to travel abroad in favour of staying at home to soak up the Games.

"It is also good to report another month of strong performance by our new carriers serving important high growth economies. They have helped boost growth to the Asian market by 9.2%"