Gatwick-AirportLondon Gatwick Airport (IATA: LGW, ICAO: EGKK) is located 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and 45.7 km (28.4 mi) south of London. It is London’s second largest international airport and second busiest by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom after Heathrow.

Gatwick has the world’s busiest single-use runway and is Europe’s leading airport for point-to-point flights.

In 2008, Gatwick ranked as the world’s 28th-busiest airport in terms of passenger numbers, 9th busiest in terms of international passengers and 8th largest in Europe by passenger traffic.

Charter airlines generally do not operate from Heathrow and use Gatwick as a base for London and the South East. From 1978 to 2008, many flights to and from the US used Gatwick because of Heathrow restrictions implemented in the Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. (As of 2010, Delta Air Lines and US Airways are the only US carriers to continue serving Gatwick from the US.) The airport is a base for scheduled operators Aer Lingus, British Airways (BA), EasyJet, Flybe and Virgin Atlantic. The airport is also a base for charter airlines including Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways. Gatwick is unique amongst London’s airports in having a significant airline presence representing each of the three main air transport provider business models, ie full service, low/no frills and charter.

BAA Limited and its predecessors, the British Airports Authority and BAA plc, owned and operated Gatwick continuously from 1 January 1966 until 2 December 2009. On 17 September 2008, BAA announced it would sell Gatwick following a report by the Competition Commission into BAA’s market dominance in London and South East England. On 21 October 2009, it was announced that agreement had been reached to sell Gatwick to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the owners of London City Airport, for £1.51 billion. Of this amount, £55 million will depend on the airport’s future traffic development and its owners’ future capital structure (£10 million and £45 million respectively). The sale was formally completed on 3 December 2009. On this day, Gatwick’s ownership passed from BAA to GIP.

Gatwick Airport has two terminals, North and South. Both have shops and restaurants, landside and airside. Disabled passengers can travel through all areas. There are facilities for baby changing and feeding, and play areas and video games for children. Business travellers have lounges offering business facilities. On 31 May 2008 Virgin Holidays opened V Room, Gatwick’s first dedicated lounge for leisure travellers. Use of this lounge is exclusive to Virgin Holidays customers flying from the airport to Orlando, Las Vegas and the Caribbean with sister airline Virgin Atlantic. There is also a conference and business centre. Furthermore, the airport has several on- and off-site hotels. These range from executive to a capsule hotel.

The airport has Anglican, Catholic and Free Church Chaplains. In addition, there is a multi-faith prayer room and counselling room in each terminal. A daily service is led by one of the chaplains. The prayer room is open to all faiths.
BA and EasyJet are Gatwick’s two dominant resident airlines. In late 2007 BA and Easyjet accounted for 25% and 17% of Gatwick’s slots. The latter’s share of slots subsequently rose to 24% as a result of its takeover of BA franchise carrier GB Airways, which accounted for 7% of slots (late 2007). The acquisition of GB Airways in March 2008 resulted in EasyJet becoming Gatwick’s biggest short-haul operator accounting for 29% of short-haul passengers (ahead of BA’s 23%) and Gatwick’s largest airline overall, with flights to 62 domestic and European destinations (at April 2008). By spring 2010, EasyJet will have further reinforced its position as Gatwick’s leading airline by increasing the number of destinations served from the airport to 82. Gatwick is the airline’s largest base, where its 10 million passengers per annum account for almost 30% of the airport’s yearly total.
Since then, airlines have started down-sizing transatlantic operations due to the new EU-US Open Skies Agreement. Continental Airlines is the second transatlantic carrier – after American Airlines – to pull out of Gatwick altogether, following its decision to transfer its seasonal Cleveland service to Heathrow from 3 May 2009.The slots vacated by these moves as well as by the collapse of Zoom, XL Airways UK and Sterling were taken by EasyJet, Flybe, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Ryanair.

By late 2008, EasyJet’s share of Gatwick slots had grown to about 26% , while Flybe had become Gatwick’s third-largest slot-holder accounting for 9% of the airport’s slots, as well as its fastest-growing airline. As per the CAA’s April/May 2009 passenger statistics, more UK domestic passengers flying to and from London Gatwick during April 2009 chose Flybe than any other airline.

From a peak of 40% in 2001, BA’s share of Gatwick slots will have declined by 50% to 20% by summer 2009.

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