UK: Gatwick expects 3m monthly passengers as losses narrow

Gatwick is expecting 3m passengers a month this summer as the easing of travel restrictions and the return of takeoff and landing slot rules help the airport recover from its pandemic slump. The airport reported narrower losses of just over GBP1m a day in 2021, down GBP95m on 2020 to GBP371m, despite passenger numbers falling further to 6.3m last year. Gatwick is expecting more than 30m passengers in 2022, operating at 85% capacity in the summer, aided by the return of slot rules that ensure airlines use their alloted takeoff and landing slots at least 70% of the time. The south terminal, mothballed to save money, will reopen at the end of March, when British Airways will also return to short-haul flying from the airport. Gatwick’s biggest airline customer, easyJet, plans to expand to record levels with 120 routes this summer, partly using slots leased from BA. The airport said the decision to reinstate slot regulations, paused in 2020, would “restore discipline” and be more efficient and economically beneficial for the region but denied it would lead to “ghost flights”. CE Stewart Wingate said load factors on flights were already high before the new rules came into effect, adding: “My biggest worry has been having a ghost terminal.” He said the end of travel restrictions had increased demand, and businesses at the airport had been recruiting for more than 2,000 new posts over recent months.<br/>