London Gatwick Airport pax down 1%, cargo up 8% in Apr-2012

UK's London Gatwick Airport passenger numbers down 1% - traffic highlights for Apr-2012:

• Passenger numbers: 2.7 million, -1.3% year-on-year;
• Cargo volume: 7895 tonnes, +8.1%;
• Aircraft movements: 19,712, -2.6%.

The airport also reported the following passenger traffic highlights by market:

• UK and Channel Islands: 322,200, +4.7% year-on-year;
• Ireland: 105,000, -5.1%;
• European scheduled: 1.5 million, +3.7%;
• European charter: 218,000, -15.8%;
• North Atlantic: 160,600, -7.1%;
• Other long-haul: 390,300, -10.6%. [more - original PR]

London Gatwick Airport: "The year-on-year decrease in passenger traffic is largely accounted for by the timing of public holidays in April 2011, including the late Easter holiday weekend, the additional holiday to mark the royal wedding and the early May bank holiday. Despite this, planes were flying fuller with load factors up 1.2 percentage points. This month we were given a vote of confidence by Korean Air and Air China as they launched operations to Seoul and Beijing respectively," Nick Dunn, CFO. Source: Company statement, 11-May-2012.