Budget airlines putting on more flights from Gatwick to Europe helped passengers numbers at London’s second-biggest airport leap by almost 7% to 33.8 million in the year to April.
More than two million extra passengers used Gatwick during the period, although the airport admitted the previous year had been affected by snow, strikes, and the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which saw about 600,000 people not travelling in April 2010. Stripping out those elements, Gatwick’s traffic grew 3%.
The airport said the jump in passenger numbers came from budget carriers putting on more flights to short-haul markets and the introduction of new Asian carriers including Hong Kong Airlines to the airport. That helped to offset charter airlines slashing capacity on long-haul flights.
The airport said passenger numbers in April 2011 had grown as travellers took advantage of the Easter holiday weekend, the additional holiday to mark the Royal Wedding and the early May bank holiday.
Stewart Wingate, the airport’s chief executive, added: “This has been a successful year for Gatwick, having achieved passenger growth every single month despite the economic headwinds in our industry.
“In this last year, Gatwick has attracted new routes to South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and the Caribbean.”
