BEHIND THE SCENES AT GATWICK AIRPORT - British Airways ...

Achievements• 6th busiest international airport• Busiest single runway airport• UK's second largest airport• Passengers per year: 30 million• Airlines: 70• Destinations: 200• Terminals: 2Breaking News: A380 Operations ApprovedGatwick Airport has been granted planning permissionby Crawley Borough Council to operate the new AirbusA380 aircraft. £43 million has already been invested insix new large aircraft stands, two of which canaccommodate the A380, helping Gatwick to compete onan equal footing with other London airports for longhaulcarriers operating the super jumbo.Flying on a double decker jumbo to far flung places isconsidered a ’must’ experience for many passengers, butcurrently Heathrow is the only London airport tooperate scheduled A380 flights. This reduces the choiceavailable to many leisure and business travellers forwhom Gatwick is their local airport. And, with its nonstopGatwick Express to Victoria, Gatwick is easily thebest connected airport to central London, which is a keyrequirement for the tourist and business traveller comingto the UK.Now that Gatwick has the go-ahead to commerciallyoperate the A380 it can ramp up its discussions withairlines that currently operate them and with airlineswhich have placed orders for them.If Gatwick can bring this next generation aircraft to theairport long-haul passengers will have, for the first timeever, a real choice of which London airport to fly from.Stewart Wingate, Gatwick Airport CEO said: “TheAirbus A380 represents the future of long-haul aviation.It’s modern, more efficient and uses less fuel perpassenger and we want Gatwick to be at the centre ofthis exciting new era of long-haul travel.“We are pouring £1 billion into Gatwick to improve theinfrastructure, modernise the airport facilities, improvecustomer service, bolster the rail links and drivecompetitive rates for airlines to encourage morepassengers and airlines to the airport. If we can bring theA380 and other large aircraft to Gatwick, passengers willhave even more reason to choose to fly to and from ourairport and help us on our journey to becoming theLondon airport of choice.”Under new ownership, Gatwick is targeting growth toat least 40 million passengers per year by 2018 – anincrease of 20% from its current 32.5 million passengersper year. Operating larger aircraft is one way in whichGatwick plans to drive traffic at the airport.14 Airways magazine October/November 2010