UK. London Gatwick Airport experienced its busiest January ever, serving 2.8 million passengers last month – an increase of +1.4% year-on-year.
January 2018 marked the airport’s 59th consecutive month of growth. Long-haul routes surged +16.8% across 60 destinations. A new route to Buenos Aires is set to launch next week.
USA routes saw the biggest percentage increase in passenger numbers. Fort Lauderdale experienced the highest passenger growth rate, accelerating +92.6% on January 2017.
New York and Boston also saw big year-on-year increases of +51.1% and +31.4% respectively. On the west coast, Oakland, San Francisco surged +76.6% and Los Angeles by +38.6%.
The airport’s Asia routes soared with Hong Kong leading growth at +42.4% year-on-year.
Regional connectivity also continued to perform well with the highest domestic route growth across Newquay (+21.3%), Guernsey (+13%) and Glasgow (+9%).
“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,” said Gatwick Airport Chief Executive Stewart Wingate.
“January’s traffic shows that USA destinations are increasingly popular and next month we’ll be providing even more options for passengers travelling Stateside with the launch of new routes to Austin and Chicago.
“These new connections will be joined this summer by British Airways’ biggest summer schedule at the airport in almost ten 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.”
