Half-term holidays give a boost to Gatwick’s passenger figures
HALF-TERM getaways helped Gatwick Airport post a 4.2 per cent rise in traffic during November, Britain’s second-busiest airport said yesterday.
Gatwick credited the earlier autumn half-term break this year for some of the uptick, which took its passengers for the month to 2.23m.
In the year to the end of November, traffic has risen 2.8 per cent on a year ago to 34.2m.
Domestic traffic was up 7.5 per cent to 324,10, and scheduled flights to Europe saw 2.8 per cent more traffic than last year at 1.14m, though this was below the year-to-date trend of 6.7 per cent growth.
Long-haul flights excluding the US jumped 11 per cent to 406,800 passengers, aided by new routes to China, Russia and Korea introduced during the year.
“As the winter season is often a challenging time of year for airports, it is positive that our traffic figures are showing growth and we continue to focus on delivering the best experience to these additional passengers,” said chief financial officer Nick Dunn in a statement yesterday.