The three major UK airports were initially set to abolish the 100ml liquid carry-on restrictions by June 1, 2024. 

Technology incorporated into the new airport scanners will negate the need for passengers to take out toiletries and laptops from their cabin bags for security checks. 

The BBC has reported that the installation delay for the new scanners could last up to a year, meaning that passengers passing through these airports could still be required to adhere to current airport security protocols up until June 2025.

Smaller airports in the UK seem to be faring better. Teesside International Airport (MME) and London City Airport (LCY) already have the new scanners installed. Meanwhile, Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA), Birmingham Airport (BHX)t, Bristol Airport (BRS) and East Midlands Airport (EMA) are expected to meet the June 1, 2024 deadline.  

According to the UK Department of Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority will impose financial penalties on airports that keep missing deadlines to install the next-generation scanners.

The new scanners feature computed tomography (CT) scans that provide clearer 3D images. Consequently, items can be left inside bags and liquids of up to two liters will be permitted.

London airport scraps 100ml liquid rule and reveals new process for electronics

• Airport
• Aviation Safety

byIan Molyneaux

2023-04-04

The facility was officially opened by on January 8, 2023, and comes with 30 high-power and low-power electric vehicle chargers available via contactless payment.聽

While customers wait, they can make use of the station精东影业 high-speed Wi-Fi, lounge area, convenience store and even Costa Coffee. 

All charging bays are powered by 100% net zero energy, with the fastest chargers capable of adding up to 100 miles of range in 10 minutes.   

鈥淲e are proud to be the first international airport to open a GRIDSERVE Electric Forecourt. The charging station has been placed in a strategic location and will be available to millions of passengers, commuters, staff, residents and businesses that pass through the area each year,鈥� Bronwen Jones, Development Director at London Gatwick, said. 

LGW has accelerated its commitment to reach net zero by 2030, 10 years ahead of its previous commitment. 

鈥淲e are making sustainability part of everything we do here at London Gatwick, and we are committed to creating a low-carbon economy by providing new infrastructure that everyone can use, so together we can reduce emissions. As we invest in our long-term, future growth additions such as GRIDSERVE are vital to London Gatwick精东影业 ecosystem,鈥� Jones added.聽聽

LGW hopes that by 2030 60% of journeys to and from the airport to be zero or ultra-low emissions by 2030. 

To achieve this LGW has recently completed major renovations at the airport精东影业 train station and is helping to fund new hydrogen buses.聽

BA cabin manager accidentally deploys emergency slide during demonstration

• Airlines
• Aviation Safety

byJean Carmela Lim

2024-01-08

LGW精东影业 airlift was closed from 13:44 to 14:35 local time, and a total of 12 incoming flights were diverted to Stansted Airport (STN), Southend Airport (SEN), Luton Airport (LTN), London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Bristol Airport (BRS).

鈥淧assenger safety is the airport’s absolute priority and – following established procedures – operations at London Gatwick were suspended temporarily while investigations into the sighting of a suspected drone close to the airfield took place. These investigations are now completed and the airfield reopened,鈥� a Gatwick Airport spokesperson told various UK media outlets.

Though the investigation has closed, the culprit has not been identified.

According to the , drone pilots are not allowed to fly their drones within 5km of any UK airport or above 400ft in the air.

In December 2018, drone chaos at LGW airport cost the budget airline easyJet at least 拢15 million ($19.4 million).

Mass sightings of drones encroaching LGW airport over the airfield and the single runway during the month caused the cancellation of over 1000 flights and is said to have affected more than 140,000 passengers.

Drone chaos at London Gatwick cost easyJet 拢15 million

• Civil Aviation

byJason Shaw

2019-01-23

Traditionally overshadowed by the larger and more congested London-Heathrow Airport (LHR), Gatwick underwent radical changes in the decade that followed its sale in 2009 to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) (the firm that has since sold a majority stake to VINCI Airports), and until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Following a massive investment program, London Gatwick has not only improved service standards, but also serves a diverse mix of airlines and destinations. 

The 15 million people living within an hour of its two terminals and its excellent rail and road connections have made Gatwick the airport of choice for many carriers looking to establish or ramp up their presence in the London market.  

In an exclusive interview with 精东影业, Gatwick Airport精东影业 CEO, Stewart Wingate, talked about his tenure as the head of the airport during this eventful and transformative period. He also shared his views about the challenges and opportunities LGW continues to experience as it recovers to pre-COVID traffic levels and returns to the growth trajectory that led it to become one of Europe精东影业 leading airports. 

Who is Stewart Wingate? 

Wingate began his professional career outside the aviation industry, as an executive at toolmaker Black & Decker. But it was a friend精东影业 suggestion nearly two decades ago that led him to apply for a managerial role at Glasgow Airport (GLA).  

His time at the Scottish airport was followed by stints as managing director at Budapest and Stansted airports and his appointment as the CEO of Gatwick Airport, a post he has held since 2009.  

Today Wingate is one of the most experienced executives at the helm of any major European airport. 

Making Gatwick a world-class airport 

Wingate landed his role at Gatwick shortly after the change of ownership that followed a decision by the UK精东影业 competition authority to force airport operator BAA to divest from several of its assets. 

One of the first tasks that the airport精东影业 new managers set for themselves was to change a number of known issues, such as inefficient and slow security procedures, that had been hindering the airport精东影业 performance and its image among the public and airlines.  

Reflecting on those times, Wingate said: 鈥淲e took the reputation of Gatwick from probably being one of the poorest airports to travel through in terms of the passenger screening experience to, in very short order, probably one of the best in in Europe.鈥�  

Dealing with COVID-19 aftershocks 

The number of passengers at Gatwick climbed from just over 30 million in 2009 to more than 46 million in 2019. This more than 40% increase was driven by the growth of low-cost and hybrid airlines and the establishment of new long-haul links to regions such as North America and the Middle East. 

Then COVID struck in early 2020, a shock from which Gatwick has not yet fully recovered. 

鈥淲e’re serving practically all of the destinations from a short-haul perspective that we served before the pandemic,鈥� Wingate claimed. 鈥淎nd I expected that probably the area where there was a little bit more concern and doubt was on the recovery of the long-haul routes.鈥�  

Wingate added that the airport has only recovered to 70% of the total traffic volume, with the busiest month seeing around 90%. “So, we [have] still got a little way to go before we get back to the pre-pandemic volumes,” he said. 

Growth opportunities at LGW 

Wingate was adamant that interest from the airlines is not lacking, with most of the pre-pandemic operators flocking back to Gatwick as soon as circumstances allowed.  

He highlighted the commitment of easyJet, the airport精东影业 largest operator, as well as British Airways, which has been adding back flights, and Wizz Air, which had already earmarked Gatwick as a growth opportunity before the pandemic.  

Looking at the long-haul market, he pointed to the return of Gulf carriers, such as Emirates and Qatar Airways, the launch of the first nonstop routes to India, the arrival of JetBlue and the fact that Norse Atlantic Airways has partly filled the gap left by Norwegian精东影业 withdrawal from the long-haul segment. 

Wingate said: 鈥淎s we started to recover from the pandemic, we saw a number of airlines grow and a number of new entrants into Gatwick emerge.鈥� 

COVID aside, the long-term upward trend in passenger numbers has been backed by considerable investment in infrastructure, including rail connectivity. But how much more can Gatwick grow before running into capacity issues? 

鈥淚 think it’s incredibly important that we have growth plans,鈥� Wingate said. 鈥淎nd we’re very fortunate that we have two pathways to growth that we publicly consulted on in our master plan back in 2019. The first one is all about investing in the current runway to incrementally increase the peak hourly movements from 55, which is where they currently stand, to 60 movements per hour.鈥� 

A little-known fact about Gatwick is that it does have a second runway, although it is not used due to its close proximity to the main runway. Could this underused asset be a vector for further capacity expansion? Wingate sounded optimistic when talking about this matter.  

鈥淭he second pathway for growth is to routinely use our existing standby runway. This is a program of works that we started back in 2017,鈥� Wingate said. 鈥淎nd we now have an approach which has been designated as being safe and meeting the highest safety standards by the CAA. 

鈥淲e’re in the final stages in preparing our plans, which will be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. We’re going through what’s called a Development Consent Order, because this needs to be scrutinized by the Planning Inspectorate.鈥�  

Wingate believes there is room to 鈥減rogressively grow鈥� to up to 80 million passengers per year if these capacity improvements go ahead. But is this growth compatible with sustainability commitments and the path to achieving net zero? 

Wingate was also adamant about the capability of the industry to deliver on this front. Concerning the airport精东影业 own operations, the pledge is to bring forward the airport’s commitment to reach net zero carbon by a decade.

鈥淎s we now move into the second decade of change, increasingly, we’re working on this agenda,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’re now taking forward plans to work with our airlines to, for example, introduce SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] into the fueling of the fleet, which I think is incredibly exciting in this current decade.  

鈥淗opefully, the following step will be electric planes or hydrogen planes. I think that’s really, really important. But we’re also looking at an airport, ourselves and our emissions. So, we’re really pleased that we’ve now accelerated our commitment to get to net zero by 2030. Previously, we were targeting to get to net zero by 2040. That’s a 10-year acceleration. And I think there’s no bigger statement that we could make at this particular junction than to do that and take a leadership position on emissions.鈥� 

Wingate concluded the interview by making a passionate appeal to young people from all backgrounds to consider a career in the airport industry.  

鈥淵ou can be the pilot, you can be the air crew, you can be the ground handling crew. You can also work for the airport planning, or regulation, or finance or retail or property. You can work in the Border Force, you can work in the police force, you can work in our fire service on our airfield ops areas, or even on our surface access areas. There’s just so many different roles, which are really important in their own right, but all interlink and play together to ensure that passengers have a safe and a secure and good experience as they travel through the airport.  

鈥淪o certainly, from my perspective, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending [that] young people take a look at the airport or airports or the companies that operate here, because it is quite a unique place to work.鈥� 

On March 16, 2023, the UK精东影业 second largest airport released its financial results for 2022 showing revenue over $935 million.

The figures represent a return to a profit of $237.75 million in 2022, after $1bn losses from 2020 and 2021.

Revenues were driven by a strong and steady recovery in passenger numbers throughout 2022 with demand at 70.4% of pre-pandemic levels, equating to 32.8 million passengers passing through the airport in the year ending December 31, 2022.

This includes aeronautical income ($489m), retail income ($192m) and car parking income ($123m).

Despite the encouraging figures bosses at are keeping their feet on the ground, especially with current economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures.

鈥淲hile we still have some way to go to reach a full recovery, we know long-term sustainable investment is critical to the future of our airport and provides a significant boost to the regional and national economy,鈥� said CEO, Stewart Wingate.

Gatwick places some of its success in 2022 down to the airport精东影业 response to a surge in demand leading up to the summer when it took decisive action to ensure passenger disruption was minimal.

London Gatwick精东影业 short-haul network was also the first to show strong recovery in 2022 and now serves 156 destinations, with easyJet flying 72% of those routes.

Short-haul is at 92% of flights flown pre-pandemic, while long-haul connectivity is taking longer to recover but has bounced back robustly in recent months, and now boasts 47 long haul routes – 76% of the number flown pre-pandemic.

The airport精东影业 main runway was also resurfaced in half the time and for half the cost of traditional methods by resurfacing only the most 鈥榯rafficked鈥� parts of its main runway.

Looking at the year ahead Air India will start flying to four new destinations from March 26 and Delta Air Lines returns to Gatwick with the airport精东影业 fourth daily flight to New York from April 10.

From this summer Jet Blue, British Airways and Norse Atlantic Airways will also be operating new long-haul routes to North America and the Caribbean.

鈥淭he decisive actions we took early last year allowed us to offer good levels of service to passengers who travelled through Gatwick. This year we will have even more choice of airlines and destinations for travellers, whether flying for business or leisure,鈥� Wingate added.

UK Aviation Authority backs airlines and tells Heathrow to slash passenger fees

• Airport
• Aviation

byIan Molyneaux

2023-03-10

While five of these frequencies will be added to boost capacity on existing routes between Heathrow (LHR) and both Delhi (passing from 14 to 17 weekly) and Mumbai (passing from 12 to 14 flights per week), several new routes will connect London Gatwick airport to second-tier Indian cities.  

Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Goa, and Kochi will each get thrice-weekly direct services to London Gatwick, in the South East of England. Air India is planning to use Boeing 787-8 aircraft on these services.  

Following its takeover by Indian conglomerate Tata Sons (via its fully owned subsidiary, Talace Private Limited), the historical Indian flag carrier is currently going through a consolidation process that will see it merged with Vistara, another Indian airline, to create the leading carrier in the region, operating a fleet of 218 aircraft.  

The additional flight will increase the capacity to more than 1,000 seats to/from LGW to DXB daily.

. ramps up its operations to Gatwick Airport with the addition of a third daily A380 flight. The airline continues to scale up its UK operations to meet sustained demand ahead of the holiday rush.

鈥� Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice)

The three daily services to LGW will depart on the following schedule:

EK11 will depart DXB at 02:50

EK15 will depart DXB at 07:40

EK09 will depart DXB at 14:25 

DXB – LGW has a flight time of about seven hours and 55 minutes.

With the latest daily service addition to London Gatwick, Emirates now has a total of 119 weekly flights to the UK across seven hubs:

• six times daily to London Heathrow

• three times daily to London Gatwick

• daily service to London Stansted 

• three times daily to Manchester

• double daily service to Birmingham

• daily flights to Newcastle

• daily service to Glasgow.

 

DXB traffic increased by 110,000 seats in November 2022

• Airport

byValius Venckunas

2022-11-27

 

RwandAir has announced that it will launch direct flights between London Heathrow and its hub in Kigali from November 6, 2022.  

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET-3717 intercepted after hour-long radio silence

• Airlines

byMichael Jonga

2022-10-20

The new non-stop service to London Heathrow will be operated by the airline精东影业 鈥渟tate-of-the-art鈥� A330 fleet four times a week. This is an increase from the airline精东影业 current indirect thrice-weekly operation, the airline said. 

RwandAir operates a of 12 aircraft, comprised of two B737-700NGs, two Bombardier CRJ-900 NextGens, two Bombardier Q-400 Next Gens, four Boeing 737-800NGs, one Airbus A330鈥�200 and one Airbus A330鈥�300.  

Air Peace keen to launch direct Lagos-Israel flights, eyes int’l expansion

• Airlines

byMichael Jonga

2022-10-18

 

The US Department of Transport has proposed to grant Norse Atlantic UK a foreign air carrier permit, the low-cost carrier said in a statement on October 17, 2022.  

鈥淭his milestone represents a huge step in creating competition in the transatlantic market that will benefit consumers, stimulate business travel and lead to job creation,鈥� said Bjorn Tore Larsen, CEO of Norse Atlantic Airways. 

Norse Atlantic had previously planned to start US flights with the UK subsidiary from London Gatwick (LGW) by the end of 2022 but said it now hopes to start flights to points in the United States in summer 2023. Destinations will be announced soon. 

Why does Norse need a UK AOC? 

The short answer is Brexit. Norse Atlantic already operates flights to New York JFK from LGW with its Norwegian AOC, but using fifth freedom rights, meaning the airline has to operate it as a connecting flight from Oslo to JFK via LGW.   

The UK AOC will allow it to start US flights in London, without the need for the short connecting flight to Oslo on the widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners that it operates.   

鈥淲e are pleased that we will continue to deliver on our pledge to democratize transatlantic travel and we look forward [to] expanding our point-to-point route network between London Gatwick and the US as part of our summer 2023 schedule,” Larsen added.  

Norway精东影业 Norse Atlantic receives AOC from UK regulator

• Airlines

byVyte Klisauskaite

2022-09-27

Transatlantic challenges 

Norse Atlantic operates Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in a two-class configuration – premium and economy. It has 15 of the aircraft in its fleet, leased under power-by-hour contracts. The airline doesn鈥檛 yet need all of the aircraft for its program so is sub-leasing four to Air Europa, which helps to bring in extra cash. 

Norwegian-based Norse Atlantic is one of a crop of carriers trying to shake up transatlantic flying, which has been traditionally dominated by flag carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA), Air France and their US counterparts American, Delta and United.  

Norse Atlantic was founded in March 2021 and its first flight took off from Oslo to New York on June 14, 2022. However, it has had to pull back on some routes for winter 2022, due to uncertain demand.  

Other companies trying their luck connecting passengers between Europe and the United States with a low-cost model include Iceland精东影业 PLAY, which flies narrowbodies via its hub in Reykjavik, and US low-fare carrier JetBlue (JBLU). 

Transatlantic low-cost has proved a tricky market to crack, with others having previously fallen by the wayside, such as Norwegian Air Shuttle and Wow in recent years and Laker Airways鈥� Skytrain back in the 1980s.   

Can established airlines hang on to their lucrative transatlantic routes?

• Aviation in North America

byHelen Nugent

2022-03-10

Staff shortages across the aviation industry and absences due to sickness, some because of COVID-19, have disrupted operations across the aviation industry in summer 2022. Several major airports, such as LGW, London Heathrow (LHR), Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) and Frankfurt Airport (FRA) have therefore restricted the number of flights they were willing to handle over the busy summer months.  

On August 23, 2022, the UK精东影业 second largest airport declared in its half-year results that it no longer needed to extend capacity declarations that it had put in place for July and August. The airport operator, part of the VINCI Group, explained that it had hired more than 400 new security staff and put in place additional resources across the operation.   

鈥淭he unprecedented growth in traffic led to short term operational issues in June, however our decisive early action to limit the airport精东影业 capacity in the crucial school holiday period of July and August has ensured passengers have experienced reliable flight timetables over the summer months,鈥� commented Stewart Wingate, Chief Executive Officer of Gatwick Airport. 鈥淲e are now very much operating business as usual and do not see any reason to extend the capacity declaration.鈥� 

That contrasts to LHR and AMS, which have both announced plans to extend capacity caps into the fall.  

London Heathrow airport extends passenger cap to end of October 2022

• Airport

byJean Carmela Lim

2022-08-16

However, shortly after the results statement was published, passengers were confronted with fresh delays and cancelations.  

In response to customer enquiries on Twitter, LGW explained that it had put restrictions on the number of arriving flights due to 鈥渓ate staff absence in the airport精东影业 control tower.鈥� 

European air traffic network manager Eurocontrol said arrivals at LGW would be regulated all day due to ATC staffing and that moderate to high delays were expected.   

Despite the disruption this summer, Gatwick Airport upgraded its forecasts for 2022 passenger numbers. It now expects 32.8 million passengers, in comparison with a previous forecast for 30.6 million. In the first half of 2022, 13.1 million passengers passed through the airport and air traffic volumes are now at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels.