Gatwick seat capacity down 15% last winter
18.04.09
Gatwick Airport lost nearly half a million seats in the last year as airlines cut frequencies, dropped routes and moved operations to Heathrow, figures from OAG reveal. The airport’s scheduled capacity fell by 475,000 seats to 2.65 million in the 12 months to March this year, a drop of 15%.
It was the biggest fall in seat volume of any UK airport, though Stansted, Luton, Manchester and Glasgow had similar percentage falls. In contrast, Heathrow saw a tiny decrease in the number of seats to 7.7 million despite carriers worldwide cutting capacity, as it gained routes from Gatwick.
A spokesman for Gatwick said the figures demonstrated the impact of the EU-US open skies agreement, which allowed more carriers access to Heathrow when it came into force at the end of March last year. Gatwick’s charter flights capacity suffered last year from the collapse of XL, whilst scheduled seats were hit by the failure of Zoom.
However, Gatwick expects this summer’s scheduled capacity to be similar to last year’s. New airlines are moving in, with Aer Lingus setting up a base at Gatwick this month, and Iceland Express moving its flights from Stansted to Gatwick in May.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
To book hotel gatwick airport or park gatwick airport at the lowest price, click on these links to two great gatwick parking and gatwick hotels price comparison pages.
