Gatwick beats Heathrow in August load factor
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Gatwick Airport’s flights were fuller than rival Heathrow during August this year, new figures have revealed.
The West Sussex airport recorded a load factor of 89.4% during the popular holiday month, while Heathrow’s came in at 82.7%.
Heathrow’s performance could be attributed to less business travel during the summer months although Gatwick claimed it was helped by a range of new European business routes into Scandinavia and Russia. However with a 6.4% growth in European traffic and those in Spain, Italy and Greece amongst its favourites, it is likely the leisure sector had the majority impact.
Both airports registered a rise in passenger numbers for the month, which are construed by their comparison to the Olympics taking place in the month last year.
Gatwick saw four million passengers travel through its terminals in August, while Heathrow had seven million. Gatwick’s traffic came in at a 2.5% growth with the Olympics factored in, while Heathrow saw a 1% increase. The numbers indicated how many stayed at home last summer, with Heathrow generally seeing a 7.7% increase in passengers not taking the Games into account.
Internationally Gatwick suffered on routes to North America after US Airways pulled its routes, although has been boosted by success of Vietnam Airlines’ routes and those to Dubai.
Nick Dunn, chief financial officer at Gatwick indicated that further growth is to come, although the carrier has lost long-haul routes recently.
“This month we were delighted to announce that British Airways will base a tenth long haul aircraft at Gatwick, offering passengers even more choice of when to travel to key leisure destinations in the US and the Caribbean. This news comes as other long-haul routes such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi continue to perform well, alongside key European services for business travellers in particular,” he explained.
At Heathrow traffic to the Middle East and Asia grew the most, while European traffic was up 8.6% particularly to France, Italy and Germany.
“Larger, fuller aircraft continue to contribute to rising passenger numbers at Heathrow,” said Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow.
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