London Gatwick Airport experienced the busiest January in its history last month after accommodating 2.8 million passengers, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year.
US routes saw the biggest percentage increase in passenger numbers compared to other destinations with Fort Lauderdale seeing a 92.6% increase compared to January 2017. New York and Boston also saw significant year-on-year growth – up 51.1% and 31.4% respectively.
It wasn’t just Gatwick’s thriving American routes that pushed its long-haul growth figure to 16.8% in January, the airport’s Asia routes soared too, with Hong Kong up 42.4% year-on-year.
Closer to home, Gatwick’s regional connectivity also continued to perform well last month, with Newquay up 21.3%, Guernsey up 13% and Glasgow up 9%.
Stewart Wingate, CEO, London Gatwick, said, “We’ve started 2018 as we mean to go on at Gatwick, with record January passenger numbers and considerable year-on-year growth across our long-haul route network.
“January’s traffic shows that US destinations are increasingly popular and next month we’ll be providing even more options for passengers traveling stateside with the launch of new routes to Austin and Chicago.
“These new connections will be joined this summer by British Airways’s biggest summer schedule at the airport in almost 10 years – a 15% increase in weekly flights compared to last year.
“As we approach five consecutive years of growth, Gatwick continues to play an increased role for Britain on the global stage and we stand ready to build our financeable and deliverable second runway scheme for the country.”
