Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport  is located 3.1 miles north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and 29.5 mi south of Central London. Also known as London Gatwick, it is London's second largest international airport and second busiest by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. Furthermore, Gatwick is Europe's leading airport for point-to-point flights and has the world's busiest single-use runway with a maximum of 55 aircraft movements per hour. Its two terminals – North and South – cover an area of 98,000 m2 and 160,000 m2 respectively. In 2013, 35.4 million passengers passed through Gatwick.

From 1978 to 2008, many flights to and from the United States used Gatwick because of restrictions on the use of Heathrow implemented in the Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. US Airways, Gatwick's last remaining US carrier, ended service from the airport on 30 March 2013. This leaves Gatwick without a scheduled US airline presence for the first time in over 35 years. The airport is a base for scheduled operators Aer Lingus, British Airways (BA), EasyJet, Monarch Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Virgin Atlantic, as well as charter airlines including 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 airline business models: full service, low/no frills and charter. In its 2011/12 financial year, these respectively accounted for 33, 55 and 11% of total passenger traffic.

BAA Limited and its predecessors, BAA plc and the British Airports Authority, owned and operated Gatwick continuously from 1 April 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 the South East. On 21 October 2009, it was announced that an agreement had been reached to sell Gatwick to a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), who also have a controlling interest in London City and Edinburgh airports, for £1.51 billion. The sale was formally completed on 3 December 2009 and ownership of Gatwick passed to the GIP-led consortium.

History
The name "Gatwick" was first recorded, as Gatwik in 1241, meaning the name of a manor, on the site of today's airport (under the northmost edge of North Terminal's aircraft taxiing area). Until the 19th century, it was owned by the De Gatwick family. Its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words gāt, 'goat', and wīc, 'dairy farm', i.e. 'goat farm'.

The London and Brighton Railway opened on 21 September 1841, running near Gatwick Manor. In 1890, the descendants of the original owners sold the area to the newly established Gatwick Race Course Company. The new owners opened a horse racecourse the following year, beside the London-Brighton railway and a dedicated station including sidings for horse boxes. The course held steeplechase and flat races.

During the First World War, the racecourse hosted the Grand National on 1916, 1917 and 1918.

1920–1945
In the late 1920s land adjacent to the racecourse at Hunts Green Farm along Tinsley Green Lane was used as an aerodrome. The aerodrome was licensed in August 1930 as Gatwick Aerodrome following a change in land ownership.

Later in 1930, the Surrey Aero Club was formed at the aerodrome by a Ronald Waters, who had been the manager of Home Counties Aircraft Service Ltd based at Penshurst Airfield in Kent. Surrey Aero Club used the old Hunts Green farmhouse as club house.

Redwing Aircraft Company bought the aerodrome in 1932 and operated a flying school. The aerodrome was also used for pilots flying in to races. In 1933, the Air Ministry approved commercial flights from Gatwick. The aerodrome was sold for £13,500 to Morris Jackaman, an investor. Jackaman formed a new airport company named Airports Limited in 1934. Hillman's Airways became Gatwick's first commercial airline operator, starting scheduled services from the airport to Belfast and Paris.

In 1935 a new airline named Allied British Airways was formed, by a merger between Hillman's Airways, United Airways and Spartan Airways. The newly formed carrier, which subsequently shortened its name to British Airways, became Gatwick's principal operator. Lack of adequate space at Heston resulted in Airwork Ltd relocating to Gatwick.

On 6 July 1935 the aerodrome closed temporarily for building works, which included construction of The Beehive, the world's first circular terminal building. In September 1935, the new railway station called Gatwick opened, served by two trains per hour on the Victoria - Brighton line. On 30 September, Tinsley Green railway station opened 0.85 mi south of the present Gatwick station.

The first scheduled flight to depart the airport from The Beehive terminal was made on 17 May 1936, bound for Paris. The applicable air fare was £4 5s, including a first class rail ticket from London Victoria. The airport was officially reopened on 6 June 1936 by the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Swinton. The formal opening ceremony of The Beehive, the airport's new terminal, was held on the same day. The Beehive was the first circular airport terminal in the world. It was designed by Frank Hoar and incorporated several novel features, including a subway to the already existing railway station at Tinsley Green that let passengers travel from London Victoria Station to the aircraft without stepping outside. Following the airport's official reopening, Tinsley Green railway station was renamed Gatwick Airport. Air Travel Ltd, which had relocated to Gatwick from Penshurst, moved into the new airport's aircraft hangar.

In both September and November 1936 two fatal accidents occurred, causing the airport's safety to be questioned. Moreover, the area was prone to fog and waterlogging as a result of poor drainage due to heavy clay soils. This in turn caused the new subway to flood after rain. As a result and because longer landing strips were needed, the pre-war British Airways moved to Croydon Airport in 1937. Gatwick returned to private flying and was contracted as a Royal Air Force (RAF) flying school. The airport also attracted repair companies.

Gatwick was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in September 1939, and became a base for RAF night-fighters and an Army co-operation squadron during the Second World War as mainly a repair and maintenance facility. Horse racing at Gatwick ceased in 1940.

1945–1958
Gatwick Airport was officially decommissioned in 1946, but the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation continued to operate it as a civil airfield, initially for a six-month trial period. During that period, Airwork provided maintenance facilities at Gatwick and other contemporary charter airlines flying war-surplus aircraft started to use the airport; however, persistent drainage issues affected the airport's usage. Most commercial air services were cargo flights. The original Gatwick railway station was renamed Gatwick Racecourse.

In November 1948 the airport's owners warned that it could be de-requisitioned by November 1949 and revert to private use. Stansted was favoured as London's second airport and Gatwick's future was in doubt. In 1950, despite opposition from local authorities, the Cabinet chose Gatwick as an alternative to Heathrow. British European Airways (BEA) began operating from Gatwick to the Channel Islands.

In May 1950 Gatwick's first chartered flight departed the original airport's grass runway for Calvi on the Mediterranean island of Corsica with a refuelling stop in Nice. Jersey-based UK independent airline Air Transport Charter (C.I.) Ltd operated this flight under contract to UK package tour pioneer Vladimir Raitz's Horizon Holidays, using a 32-seat Douglas DC-3 carrying 11 passengers.

In July 1952, the British government confirmed that the airport would be developed, primarily to cater for aircraft diverted from Heathrow in bad weather. That year, BEA established a base at Gatwick for its helicopter operations.

The airport was temporarily closed between 1956 and 1958 for a £7.8 million renovation. During that period, BEA continued using Gatwick for its helicopter operations. The redevelopment was carried out by Alfred McAlpine. It entailed diverting the A23 London–Brighton trunk road and the River Mole, and building the runway across the erstwhile racecourse site and rebuilding the former racecourse railway station alongside the new terminal. The main pier of what is now the South Terminal was built during this construction work.

1958–1970
On 27 May 1958 the original Gatwick railway station, which had been rebuilt, reopened as Gatwick Airport station. The railway station at Tinsley Green was closed. Before the official opening, Transair operated the first commercial air service from the new Gatwick on 30 May 1958; a Jersey Airlines de Havilland Heron was the first scheduled aircraft to arrive at the newly reconstructed airport.

Queen Elizabeth II flew into the new airport on 9 June 1958 in a de Havilland Heron of the Queen's Flight to perform the opening. The first "official" flight to depart Gatwick following the reopening ceremony was a BEA DC-3 operating a charter for Surrey County Council to Jersey and Guernsey. Gatwick was the world's first airport with a direct railway link and the first to combine mainline rail travel, trunk road facilities and an air terminal building in one unit. It was also one of the first to have an enclosed pier-based terminal, which allowed passengers to walk under cover to waiting areas close to aircraft with only a short walk outdoors. Another novel feature of Gatwick's new air terminal was its modular design. This permitted subsequent, phased expansion.

Between 1958 and 1959, Sudan Airways and BWIA West Indies Airways were among Gatwick's first scheduled overseas airlines. The former's Blue Nile services were the first scheduled flights from Gatwick by a foreign airline. These services operated between Khartoum and London Gatwick via Cairo, Athens and Rome, initially using Airwork Vickers Viscount aircraft. US supplemental carriers Seven Seas Airlines, Capitol International, President Airlines and Transocean Airlines, as well as various South European and Scandinavian charter airlines, figured prominently among Gatwick's early overseas users.

From the late 1950s onwards, a number of Britain's contemporary private airlines joined Airwork, Gatwick's only surviving pre-war private airline, at the airport. The first was Transair, which relocated to Gatwick from Croydon Airport. It was followed by Morton Air Services and Hunting-Clan, which relocated from Croydon and Heathrow respectively. In July 1960, these merged with Airwork and Southend-based Air Charter to form British United Airways (BUA). BUA assumed Airwork's services, and became Britain's largest independent airline in the 1960s. During that decade, it became Gatwick's largest resident airline. By the end of the decade, it also became the airport's leading scheduled operator, with a 44,100 mi network of short, medium and long-haul routes across Europe, Africa and South America. These were served with contemporary BAC One-Eleven and Vickers VC10 jet aircraft.

Despite rapid expansion of BUA's and other airlines' scheduled activities at Gatwick, the airport was dominated by non-scheduled services well into the 1980s. The bulk of these were inclusive tour (IT) passenger services provided by a growing number of British independent operators and their overseas counterparts. During the 1960s, IT services accounted for between two-thirds and three-quarters of Gatwick's annual passengers, earning the airport its bucket and spade tag.

On 1 April 1961 BEA began operating half its London–Paris flights from Gatwick. On that day, Gatwick's designation changed to London (Gatwick) to emphasise its status as a London airport vis-à-vis London Airport, which in turn was redesignated as London (Heathrow).

In 1962, two additional piers were added to the airport terminal.

On 1 May 1963 non-scheduled operators began implementing the Ministry of Aviation's instruction to transfer all regular charter flights from Heathrow to Gatwick, restricting the former's use for non-scheduled operations to "occasional" charter flights only.

On 26 May 1963, BUA launched Silver Arrow, a twice-daily combined rail-air service between the city centres of London and Paris, using a Viscount for the cross-Channel Gatwick – Le Touquet air service. BEA Helicopters made Gatwick their administrative and engineering base on 1 January 1964.

That year, Gatwick's original, relatively short 7000 ft late-1950s paved runway was extended by 1200 ft to 8200 ft due to new noise rules governing the operation of jet aircraft at airports close to or surrounded by densely populated urban areas.

By 1965, each of the three piers was nearly 1,000 ft long and the entire terminal complex had a floor area of 100,000 sqft. Fully extendible jet bridges were added when the piers were rebuilt and extended in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

On 9 April 1965 a BUA One-Eleven operated the type's first revenue service from Gatwick to Genoa. BUA commenced Gatwick's first scheduled domestic jet services to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast on 4 January 1966. The new services, branded as InterJet, made BUA the first UK domestic airline plying trunk routes exclusively with jet aircraft. Canadian charter airline Wardair launched the first of a series of transatlantic charter flights from Gatwick to Canada using Boeing 727s that year.

In May 1967 Green Line Coaches launched an hourly inter-airport express coach service between Gatwick and Heathrow.

In June 1969 Westward Airways commenced the first inter-airport air shuttle between Gatwick and Heathrow using Britten-Norman Islanders.

1970–1999
A second extension of Gatwick's runway was completed in 1970 by 875 ft to 9075 ft, allowing for non-stop jet operations to the US east coast with a full payload and full-range/payload operations by British United Airways (BUA) and Caledonian Airways BAC One-Eleven 500s. BEA Airtours made Gatwick their base. In September 1970, Westward Airways ceased its inter-airport air shuttle operating between Gatwick and Heathrow.

Caledonian Airways purchased British United Airways in November 1970; the combined airline initially became known as Caledonian//BUA. The acquisition enabled Caledonian to transform itself from a charter airline to a scheduled airline. In addition to scheduled routes inherited from BUA, it launched scheduled services to Europe, North and West Africa, North America as well as the Middle and Far East during the 1970s and 80s. In September 1971, the airline was renamed British Caledonian (BCal). In November 1971 BCal commenced the first scheduled service between London and Paris by a wholly private UK airline since the 1930s, operating from Gatwick to Le Bourget.

In March 1971 Green Line extended its Gatwick–Heathrow inter-airport express coach service to Luton Airport.

In November 1972 Laker Airways became the first operator of widebody aircraft at Gatwick, following the introduction of two McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-10 aircraft. Laker's DC-10 fleet expanded throughout the 1970s and early 80s. This included longer-range -30s, which were introduced from 1980.

The third extension to Gatwick's runway was completed in 1973, taking it to 10165 ft and allowing for non-stop narrowbody operations to the US west coast with a full payload and commercially viable, long-range widebody operations. Wardair became the first airline to operate Boeing 747s at Gatwick. KLM complemented its existing Heathrow–Amsterdam service with a new Gatwick–Amsterdam route, making it the first non-UK airline to base its decision to split operations between Heathrow and Gatwick on its own commercial judgement rather than the implementation of government directives.

British Caledonian inaugurated the first transatlantic scheduled services by a private UK airline to New York and Los Angeles from Gatwick in April 1973. The airline introduced its first two DC-10-30s in March and May 1977 at the airport.

On 26 September 1977 Laker Airways launched Skytrain, Gatwick's first daily long-haul, no frills flights to John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport.

By the late 1970s, several government initiatives in support of Gatwick's development had resulted in steady growth in passenger numbers. Amongst these were new policies seeking the transfer of all scheduled services between London and the Iberian peninsula from Heathrow to Gatwick, banning whole-plane charters at Heathrow and compelling all airlines that were planning to operate a scheduled service to or from London for the first time to use Gatwick instead of Heathrow. The latter policy was officially known as the "London [Air] Traffic Distribution Rules". It came into effect on 1 April 1978 and was applied retroactively from 1 April 1977. These rules were designed to achieve a fairer distribution of traffic between London Heathrow and London Gatwick, the UK's two main international gateway airports. The policy was aimed at increasing Gatwick's utilisation to help the airport make a profit. Another pro-active measure the Government took to aid Gatwick's development at the time was to grant permission for a high-frequency helicopter shuttle service linking both of London's main airports.

On 1 April 1978, British Airways (BA) and Aer Lingus launched daily scheduled flights between Gatwick and Dublin. This marked the first time Gatwick had been used as a London terminal for scheduled services linking the British and Irish capitals. For British Airways it marked the first time the airline had operated scheduled services from Gatwick with an aircraft based at the airport. For Aer Lingus this was the first time it had operated a scheduled service from Gatwick.

On 9 June 1978, the 20th anniversary of Gatwick's reopening by Queen Elizabeth II coincided with the joint inauguration by BCal, British Airways Helicopters and the BAA of Airlink, a new helicopter shuttle service linking the airport with London Heathrow. By the end of 1978, scheduled passengers outnumbered charter passengers for the first time in Gatwick's post-war history.

In August 1980, BCal launched the UK's first private scheduled air service to Hong Kong (via Dubai) from Gatwick. The airline began operating a small fleet of Boeing 747Boeing 747-200s from the airport in 1982.

Pope John Paul II arrived at the airport on 28 May 1982 onboard a Alitalia Boeing 727-200 Advanced, beginning the first papal visit to the United Kingdom. The Pope departed the airport at the end of his visit on 2 June 1982, on board a BCal Boeing 707.

In December 1982, the Gatwick Hilton opened, becoming the first hotel in Britain to form part of an airport complex.

In 1983, as passenger numbers grew, a circular satellite pier was added to the terminal building, connected to the main terminal by the UK's first automated people mover system. The system has since been replaced with a walkway and travelators). There was a need for more capacity and a second terminal was planned. As a result, construction began on the North Terminal, the largest construction project south of London in the 1980s, costing £200 million.

Gatwick's new air traffic control tower opened in 1984, the tallest in the UK at the time. That year, the Gatwick Express was launched by British Rail, the world's first non-stop airport to city centre rail service, running between the airport and London Victoria station.

In 1985, work began on converting the airport's northern parallel taxiway into a second runway for emergency use only. In June that year, British Airways operated the first commercial Concorde flight from Gatwick.

The last Airlink helicopter shuttle service from Gatwick to Heathrow was operated on 6 February 1986.

In the year ending April 1987, Gatwick overtook New York JFK as the world's second-busiest international airport, handling 15.86 million international passengers – 100,000 more than JFK.

The North Terminal was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 18 March 1988. A second aircraft pier was added to the terminal in 1991. Gatwick's two terminals were connected by an automated rapid track transit system.

By the end of the 1989/90 financial year, passengers on scheduled services were consistently outnumbering those on non-scheduled services at Gatwick. The latter had accounted for more than half the airport's passengers during the 1970s and most of the 1980s.

In 1991, Dan-Air replaced Air Europe as Gatwick's principal short-haul scheduled operator following the latter's demise early that year. Dan-Air and Air Europe had played an important role in the development of Gatwick and its short-haul scheduled route network.

In 1994, the North Terminal international departures lounge and first phase of the South Terminal international departures lounge opened, at a total cost of £30 million. The main runway was extended for a fourth time in 1998, reaching 10879 ft, to enable longer-range operations with fully laden widebody aircraft.

EasyJet began operating from the airport in December 1999. Its first route from Gatwick served Geneva using aircraft and crews of EasyJet Switzerland based at Geneva Airport.

2000–2009
Between 2000 and 2001 Gatwick's two terminals were further expanded to add more seating, retail space and catering outlets, at a total cost of £60 million. This included an extension to the North Terminal departure lounge which was completed in 2001. EasyJet began stationing aircraft at the airport the following year.

In 2005 the new Pier 6 opened, having cost £110 million, adding an additional 11 pier-served aircraft stands. The pier is linked to the North Terminal's main building by the largest air passenger bridge in the world. The bridge spans a taxiway, providing arriving and departing passengers with views of the airport and taxiing aircraft. The same year, an extension and refurbishment to the South Terminal's baggage reclaim hall was completed, doubling it in size. An extension of the South Terminal's departure lounge was completed in May 2008. In addition, a second-floor security search area opened. This terminal is now mainly used by low-cost airlines; many former users moved to the newer North Terminal.

On 12 October 2009, Qatar Airways's daily QR076 Gatwick–Doha scheduled service became the first commercial flight to be powered by fuel made from natural gas. The Airbus A340-600HGW operating the six-hour flight ran on a 50–50 blend of synthetic gas-to-liquids (GTL) and conventional oil-based kerosene developed by Shell instead of traditional, purely oil-based aviation turbine fuel.

Following the agreement to sell the airport to Global Infrastructure Partners, ownership of the airport transferred by BAA Limited to the consortium of private equity funds led by GIP on 3 December 2009.

2009–present
Following the sale of the airport to GIP, Gatwick's new owners announced their intention to proceed with a previously agreed £1 billion investment programme to upgrade and expand the airport's existing infrastructure to transform the passenger experience between 2008 and 2014. GIP added to the budget for the investment programme, raising it to £1.172 billion. Additional funding of £1 billion for the five years from 2014 to 2019 was agreed in February 2013. It is expected that GIP will use its relationships to persuade new and existing airlines to consider launching additional routes from Gatwick, reinstating services suspended as a result of the global recession in the wake of the financial crisis that began in 2007 and the EU-US Open Skies Agreement and/or expanding their existing flying programme from the airport in the near future.

On 22 June 2010, Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL) launched a new brand for the airport featuring the tagline "Your London Airport – Gatwick", and dropped the "London" prefix from the airport's name. The logo and branding was created by the advertising agency Lewis Moberly.

On 6 July 2012 an Emirates Airbus A380 operated the type's first scheduled service from Gatwick to mark the airline's 25th anniversary at the airport, in the UK and Europe, as well as to test the aircraft's suitability for the airport. Two compatible stands for the aircraft type were completed in late February the following year, enabling jet bridge access at the western end of the North Terminal's Pier 6. Emirates operated a second, "one-off" scheduled A380 flight from Gatwick on 26 March 2013 to test the airport's new three-bridge gate facility at Pier 6's stand 110. This event marked the official opening of Gatwick's first pier-served A380 stand, which cost £6.4 million to build.

The demolition of Pier 1, Gatwick's second-oldest pier dating from 1962 was started on 31 May 2013, to enable its replacement with a new £180 million, two-storey structure featuring five pier-served aircraft stands and an automated baggage storage facility. The new structure is due to become operational by summer 2015.

Thomson Airways operated the first flight of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from the airport on 21 June 2013, operating a charter flight to Menorca. The flight was the commercial debut of the type for the airline as well as the airport.

1958–2000
Gatwick handled 186,172 passengers during its first seven months of operation following the 1956–58 reconstruction. The number of passengers passing through the airport each year had grown to 368,000 by 1959 and 470,000 by 1960.

Passenger numbers at Gatwick reached 1 million for the first time in the mid-1960s, with a record 1.4 million passing through the airport in the 1965/66 financial year. Gatwick welcomed 2 million passengers for the first time in the 1967/68 financial year and 3 million in the 1969/70 financial year, by which time British United Airways accounted for almost half of all passengers.

By the early 1970s, 5 million passengers used Gatwick each year, with a record 5.7 million using the airport in the 1973/74 financial year. During that period, British Caledonian accounted for approximately half of all and three-quarters of scheduled passengers.

Within a decade, annual passenger numbers doubled to 10 million. They doubled again to over 20 million by the late 1980s.

By the turn of the millennium, Gatwick handled more than 30 million passengers annually.

2000 onwards
35.4 million passengers passed through London Gatwick in 2013 representing an increase of 3.6% over the 34.2 million passengers using Gatwick in 2012. This figure exceeded by more than 200,000 the 35.2 million the airport handled in 2007, the previous peak year for annual passenger traffic.

Amongst individual passenger traffic components, other long-haul and European scheduled traffic recorded increases of 8.9 and 6.1% to 5.07 and 19.65 million passengers respectively over the corresponding figures for 2012. On the other hand, North Atlantic, UK, Irish and European charter traffic saw decreases of 10.7, 1.4, 1.4 and 1.2% to 1.65, 3.78, 1.27 and 4.03 million passengers respectively over the corresponding figures for 2012.

Compared with January 2013, January 2014 passenger numbers saw a 6.6% increase to over 2.2 million, representing 138,300 more passengers compared with the same year-earlier period. Amongst individual passenger traffic components, European scheduled, other long-haul and Irish traffic recorded increases of 12.8, 11.3 and 6.5% to 1.195 million, 460,200 and 92,300 passengers respectively. European charter, North Atlantic and UK traffic saw decreases of 19, 13.4 and 0.8% to 148,200, 83,500 and 255,600 passengers respectively. Air transport movements increased by 6.7% to 17,132. Cargo volume decreased by 12% to 6,446 metric tonnes. The 8% increase in total passenger traffic to and from destinations in Europe to over 1.4 million included additional passengers travelling on scheduled services to and from business destinations such as Stockholm, Istanbul, Moscow and Copenhagen. Fewer passengers travelled on UK domestic routes as additional passengers travelling on Aer Lingus's Belfast route, EasyJet's Isle of Man route as well as to and from Glasgow were insufficient to offset those lost as a result of the withdrawal of British Airways' Manchester route. The double-digit declines in both European charter and North Atlantic traffic respectively reflected the ongoing shift in capacity towards the scheduled market by low-cost leisure airlines such as Monarch Airlines and the cessation of services by US Airways. Leisure traffic to Thailand and Sri lanka as well as business traffic to and from the Middle and Far East and Indian subcontinent, including connecting traffic via Dubai, accounted for the additional 46,900 passengers travelling to other long-haul destinations. Average monthly load factors stood at 75.2%.

Ownership
Since 2009, the airport has been owned and operated by Gatwick Airport Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivy Holdco Limited. Ivy Holdco is owned by a consortium of companies with the following share holdings:

In February 2010 GIP sold minority stakes of 12% and 15% to South Korean National Pension Service and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), for £100 million and £125 million, respectively. These were sold in Gatwick's – rather than GIP's – name. The sale of these stakes is part of GIP's strategy to syndicate the equity portion of the original acquisition by issuing bonds to refinance bank debt. Although this entails bringing in additional investors in the airport, GIP aims to retain management control.

The Californian state pension fund CalPERS acquired a 12.7% stake in Gatwick Airport for around $155 million (£104.8 million) in June 2010.

On 21 December 2010 the A$69 billion (£44 billion) Future Fund, a sovereign wealth fund set up by the Australian government in 2006, agreed to purchase a 17.2% stake in Gatwick Airport from GIP for £145 million. This transaction completed GIP's equity syndication process for Gatwick, and reduced its stake to 42%, although the private equity firm's extra voting rights mean it still retains control of the airport's board.

Facilities
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. On 9 April 2009, a new independent pay-for-access lounge called No.1 Traveller opened in the South Terminal. 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.

The Civil Aviation Authority Safety Regulation Group is in Aviation House. WesternGeco, a geophysical services company, has its head office and its Europe/Africa/Russia offices in Schlumberger House, a 124,000 sqft building on the grounds of Gatwick Airport, near the south terminal. WesternGeco had a 15-year lease on the building which was scheduled to expire in June 2008. In 2007, WesternGeco reached an agreement with its landlord, BAA Lynton, and extended its lease at Schlumberger House until 2016. Its initial rent was £2.1 million. Fastjet Plc has its registered office and head office at Suite 2C in First Point at Gatwick Airport.

Prior to the change of ownership, BAA planned an £874 million investment at Gatwick over five years, including increased capacity for both terminals, improvements to the transport interchange and a new baggage system for the South Terminal. Passengers passing through the airport are being made aware of the redevelopment programme in a number of ways, including through the use of giant mobile barcodes on top of construction hoardings. Scanning these results in content about the construction work being transferred to the user's smartphone.

In summer 2013, Gatwick began trialling Gatwick Connect, a free flight connections service provided by the airport to assist passengers whose itinerary involves changing flights at Gatwick and where the airlines do not provide a full flight connections service themselves. The service features a dedicated Gatwick Connect desk in the baggage reclaim hall in each of the airport's terminals where passengers can confirm their details and/or drop their bags for their onward flights if already checked-in online, thus obviating the need to check themselves and their baggage in again. As of January 2014, this service is available to passengers travelling with Norwegian Air Shuttle and Virgin Atlantic.

Operations
Gatwick operates as a single runway airport. It has two runways; however, the northern runway (08L/26R) can only be used when the main runway (08R/26L) is out of use, for example because of maintenance or an accident. The runways cannot be used at the same time because there is not enough separation between them, and during normal operation the northern runway is used as a taxiway. The second runway was originally built as a taxiway and was gradually widened.

The main runway operates with a Category III Instrument Landing System (ILS). The northern runway does not have an ILS and, when it is in use, arriving aircraft use a combination of Distance Measuring Equipment and assistance from the approach controller using surveillance radar, or where equipped and subject to operator approval, an RNAV (GNSS) Approach, which is also available for the main runway. On all runways, considerable use is made of continuous descent approach to minimise environmental effects of incoming aircraft, particularly at night.

Night flights are subject to restrictions. Between 11 pm and 7 am the noisiest aircraft (rated QC/8 and QC/16) may not operate. In addition, between 11.30 pm and 6 am (the night quota period) there are three limits:
 * An overall limit on the number of flights;
 * A Quota Count system which limits the total of noise permitted, but allows operators to choose to operate fewer noisy or a greater number of quieter aircraft;
 * QC/4 aircraft may not operate at night.

Security
The airport is policed by the Gatwick District of Sussex Police. The district is responsible for policing the whole airport, including aircraft, and in certain circumstances, aircraft in flight. The 150 officers attached to this district include armed and unarmed officers, and community support officers for minor offences. The airport district counter man-portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS) by patrolling in and around the airport. A separate sub-unit has vehicle checks around the airport.

The airport is one of three UK airports to feature body scanners; initially, they are located in the main search areas of both the North and South terminals. Access to the airside areas of the airport (both internal and external areas) is controlled and maintained by the airports own team of security officers, regulated by the Department for Transport.

Brook House, an immigration removal centre of the UK Border Agency was opened near the airport on 18 March 2009 by the then—Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.

Major airlines
From 1964 until 1985, British Airways Helicopters and its predecessor, BEA Helicopters, had their administrative and engineering base at Gatwick Airport South, the site of the original 1930s airport. In 1968, British United Airways relocated its head office to Gatwick from Portland House in London. After Caledonian Airways acquired British United Airways, the resulting airline, British Caledonian, had its head office at Gatwick. When CityFlyer Express operated, the airline's head office was in the Iain Stewart Centre. When Laker Airways and Tradewinds Airways operated, they had their head offices on the airport property.

In 2010, EasyJet, British Airways (BA), Thomson Airways, Monarch Airlines and Thomas Cook Airlines were Gatwick's five biggest airlines, in terms of passengers carried. Amongst these, BA and EasyJet were its 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). Following the launch of flights to Moscow Domodedovo on 18 March 2013, EasyJet will serve more than 100 routes from Gatwick, using a fleet of 54 aircraft. Gatwick is the airline's largest base, where its 14 million passengers per annum accounted for 38% of the airport's yearly total in 2012/13. This includes more than two million business travellers, putting EasyJet firmly ahead of Gatwick's next biggest passenger-carrying airline, British Airways, whose 4.5 million passengers accounted for 14% of total passenger traffic in 2011/12.

On 30 March 2008, airlines began down-sizing transatlantic operations at Gatwick due to the new EU-US Open Skies Agreement. Continental Airlines became the second transatlantic carrier – after American Airlines – to pull out of Gatwick altogether, following its decision to transfer the 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. For the third consecutive year, the latter airline maintained its position as Gatwick's largest domestic operator, whose eight routes serving the airport from other destinations in the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man carried 1.2 million passengers in its 2011/12 financial year. From a peak of 40% in 2001, BA's share of Gatwick slots declined by 50% to 20% by summer 2009. By summer 2013, this had further declined to 16%. By late-2011, EasyJet's share of Gatwick slots had further grown to 35%. As of summer 2012, EasyJet controlled 45% of Gatwick's early morning peak time slots from 6am to 8.55am, as many as the airport's next five biggest users combined. Following Flybe's decision to pull out of Gatwick at the end of March 2014 – citing unsustainably high airport charges and the negative impact of successive, large increases in UK Air Passenger Duty as reasons – and sell its 25 pairs of daily slots at the airport to EasyJet for £20 million, the latter's share of Gatwick slots is set to increase from 41% in summer 2013 to 47% by summer 2014, giving EasyJet almost three times as many slots as BA at Gatwick.

Changing character of airport
According to the evidence Flybe submitted at a Competition Commission hearing into BAA Limited's market dominance at the beginning of 2008, Gatwick's dynamics were changing rapidly as a result of recent changes in its traffic pattern. These were likely to transform the airport from a secondary intercontinental airline hub into a predominantly European and domestic operation feeding London and specifically the south London market.

Since late-2011, Gatwick has attracted a number of new full-service airlines, including Air China, Caribbean Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines and Vietnam Airlines. This forms part of the airport's strategy to get more higher-spending business travellers to use it to counterbalance its dependence on European low-cost and charter markets, as well as to increase year-round capacity utilisation by smoothing out peaks and troughs in slot usage. Gatwick's recent successes in persuading these airlines to [re-]launch routes to several important overseas destinations for business and leisure travel were also aided by non-availability of suitable slots at Heathrow. The addition of these airlines furthermore helps Gatwick partially compensate for the loss since 2008 of all its US carriers.

City Place Gatwick
Gatwick Airport has an office complex on the airport property, called City Place Gatwick. The complex includes four buildings: The Beehive, a former terminal building;  1 City Place; 2 City Place; and 3 City Place. City Place was developed by BAA Lynton. BDO International currently occupy offices at 2 City Place. On 5 January 2012, Nestlé announced the relocation of its UK head office from Croydon to City Place Gatwick, where it now occupies 1 City Place.

A number of airlines have also had offices at The Beehive over the years, including BEA/British Airways Helicopters, Jersey Airlines, Caledonian Airways, Virgin Atlantic and GB Airways at other times.

Airlines and destinations
Gatwick has two terminals: North and South. The South Terminal is Gatwick's older and busier terminal, and is also where the airport railway station is located. The following list includes all scheduled services to and from Gatwick Airport, as well as regular charter flights.

Busiest routes
In 2012 there was a decline in passenger numbers for some of the busiest Spanish destinations, although there was an increase in numbers for Barcelona, as well as for Milan, Nice and the long-haul destination of Cancun in Mexico. The biggest increase in domestic passenger numbers in 2012 was for Aberdeen and other airports in Scotland and Northern Ireland, while there was a decline in traffic to short-haul destinations within England.

Ground transport
Gatwick has set the objective that 40% of passengers should be using public transport by the time the annual throughput reaches 40 million (estimated in 2015), rising to 45% once the annual throughput reaches 45 million.

Road
The airport is accessed by a motorway spur road at junction 9A of the M23, which links to the main M23 motorway 1 mi east at junction 9. The M23 connects with London's orbital motorway, the M25, 9 mi north. This gives access to much of Greater London, the South East and beyond. The M23 is the main route for traffic to the airport. Gatwick can also be accessed by the A23, which serves Horley and Redhill to the north and Crawley and Brighton to the south. The A217 provides access northwards to the local town of Reigate.

The airport has long and short-stay car parks – at the airport and off-site – although these are often full in summer. Local planning restrictions limit car parking at and around Gatwick.

Rail
The Gatwick Airport railway station is next to South Terminal and provides connections along the Brighton Main Line to London Victoria and London Bridge stations, as well as Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne, Portsmouth and Bognor Regis to the south. The Gatwick Express to Victoria, operated by Southern, is the best-known service from the station, but other companies, including First Capital Connect and First Great Western, use the station as well, and Southern provides services to Victoria and London Bridge under its own brand. First Capital Connect provide direct trains to Luton Airport and First Great Western trains provide a direct rail link with Reading and connections with Oxford and the West.

Foot passengers can reach Heathrow by a X26 Express Bus from outside East Croydon station, which is an intermediate stop for semi-fast train services to London.

Bus and coach
National Express Coaches operates coaches to Heathrow Airport and Stansted Airport, as well as cities and towns throughout the region and country. Oxford Bus Company operate direct services to Oxford. EasyBus operates minicoaches from both terminals to Earls Court/West Brompton.

Local buses connect North and South terminals with Crawley, Horley, Redhill, Horsham, Caterham and other destinations. Services are offered by Metrobus and Fastway, a guided bus rapid transit system which was the first of its kind to be constructed outside a major city.

There are at least two sets of stairs for foot-passengers to leave South Terminal to ground-level (near the cycle route) from Zone L and the train-station area (steps are labelled Exit Q and Exit P on the ground). These allow access to bus stops for local services.

Cycle
Route 21 of the National Cycle Network passes under South Terminal, allowing virtually traffic-free cycling northwards to Horley and southwards to Three Bridges and Crawley. A goods-style lift runs between the terminal and ground level (signed "Lift to Cycle Route"), near Zone L.

Terminal transfer

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Gatwick Airport's North and South terminals are connected by a 0.75 mi elevated two-way automated people mover track. The shuttle system is normally operated by two automatic, three-car driverless train vehicles. Although colloquially referred to widely as a "monorail", the shuttle system runs on a dual concrete track with rubber tyres and is not technically a monorail.

The original Gatwick transit system opened in 1983 when the circular satellite pier was built, connecting the pier to the main terminal building, and was the UK's first automated people mover system. A second transit track was constructed in 1987 to link to the new North terminal. The original satellite transit line was later replaced with a walkway and travelator link, but the inter-terminal shuttle remains in operation.

Gatwick began work on upgrading the shuttle service in April 2008. The original Adtranz C-100 people mover cars remained in continuous operation until 2009, in which time they had travelled a total of 2.5 million mi (4 million km). In September 2009 the vehicles were withdrawn from service to allow the transit system to be upgraded. Meanwhile, the two terminals were connected by a temporary free bus service. A new operating system and shuttle cars consisting of six Bombardier CX-100 vehicles was installed and the guideway and transit stations were refurbished at a cost of £45 million. The new system opened for use again on 1 July 2010, two months ahead of schedule, and features included live journey information and the use of sensory technology to count the number of passengers at stations.

Expansion
Several options to expand Gatwick have been considered, including a third terminal and a second runway to the south of the existing runway. This would allow Gatwick to handle more passengers than Heathrow does today. If a second, wide-spaced (as opposed to close parallel) runway is approved, a new terminal could be sited between the two runways. This could either complement or replace the current South Terminal, depending on expected future traffic developments.

Second runway
In 1979, an agreement was reached with West Sussex County Council not to build a second runway before 2019.

In its original consultation document published on 23 July 2002 the Government decided to expand Stansted and Heathrow, but not Gatwick. However, Medway Council, Kent County Council and Essex County Council sought a judicial review of this decision. The judge reviewing the lawfulness of the Government's decision ruled that excluding Gatwick from the original consultation was irrational and/or unfair. Following the judge's ruling and the Secretary of State for Transport's decision not to appeal, BAA published new consultation documents. These included an option of a possible second runway at Gatwick to the south of the existing airport boundary, leaving the villages Charlwood and Hookwood to the north of the airport intact. This led to protests about increased noise and pollution, demolition of houses and destruction of villages.

On 2 December 2009, the House of Commons Transport Select Committee published a report entitled The future of aviation. With regard to Gatwick, it calls on the Government to reconsider its decision to build a second runway at Stansted, in the light of growing evidence that the business case is unconvincing and that Gatwick is a better location.

Speaking at the first Gatwick Airport Consultative Committee (Gatcom) meeting since GIP's takeover of the airport (held on 28 January 2010 at Crawley's Arora Hotel), Gatwick's chairman Sir David Rowlands ruled out building a second runway for the foreseeable future, citing the high cost of the associated planning application – estimated to be between £100 million and £200 million – as the main reason for the new owners' lack of interest. At that meeting, Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate stressed GIP's preference for increasing the existing runway's capacity and confirmed GIP's plans to request an increase in the current limit on the permitted number of take-offs and landings. However, in 2012, Gatwick's new owners reversed their initial lack of interest in building a second runway at the airport for the foreseeable future. On 3 December 2012, chief executive Stewart Wingate argued in front of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee that allowing Gatwick to add a second runway to relieve the growing airport capacity shortage in the South East of England once the agreement with West Sussex County Council preventing it from doing so had expired in 2019 served the interests of the 12 million people living in its catchment area better than building a third runway at Heathrow or a new four-runway hub airport in the Thames Estuary. In support of his argument, Wingate stated that expanding Heathrow or building a new hub in the Thames Estuary was more environmentally damaging, more expensive, less practical and risked negating the benefits of ending common ownership of Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted by the erstwhile BAA. Wingate contrasted this with the greater range of flights and improved connectivity including to hitherto un-/underserved emerging markets that would result from a second runway at Gatwick by the mid-2020s as this would enable it to compete with Heathrow on an equal footing to increase consumer choice and reduce fares. In this context, Wingate also accused his counterpart at Heathrow, Colin Matthews, of overstating the importance of transfer traffic by pointing to research by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This counts the number of air travel bookings made by passengers passing through the IATA-designated London area airports and shows that only 7% of these passengers actually change flights there. Wingate believes this to be a more accurate measure of the share of passengers accounted for by transfer traffic at these airports than the more widely used alternative based on survey data collated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The CAA survey data relies on the number of passengers changing flights at these airports as reported by the airlines to the airport authorities and shows that fewer than 20% of all passengers actually change flights there.

On 23 July 2013, Gatwick unveiled its proposals for a second runway to the south of the existing runway and airport boundary. If approved, the new runway could open by 2025 and cost between £5 billion and £9 billion, depending on the option chosen – i.e., a new runway 3,395 ft south of the existing runway, a new runway less than 3,395 ft but more than 2,493 ft south of the existing runway or a new runway less than 2,493 ft south of the existing runway. The first option would allow both runways to be simultaneously used for takeoffs and landings and increase total runway capacity by more than 80% to up to 100 aircraft movements per hour. It would also increase the airport's annual maximum passenger capacity from the present 45 to 87 million. The second option would allow both runways to be used simultaneously as well, with one handling takeoffs and the other landings. This would increase total runway capacity by ca. 36% to about 75 aircraft movements per hour and result in an increase in annual maximum passenger capacity to 82 million. The third option would allow only one runway to be used at a time but would still increase total runway capacity by over 20% to at least 67 aircraft movements per hour and annual maximum passenger capacity to 66 million. Regardless of the option chosen, the total projected cost includes the cost of a third terminal next to the existing railway line.

On 17 December 2013 the Airports Commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies published its shortlist of which Southeast airports should be considered for additional runways. In addition to two alternatives at Heathrow, it recommended an option for an additional wide-spaced, 10,000 ft runway at Gatwick as first proposed by Gatwick Airport Limited on 23 July 2013 for further examination ahead of publishing its final report by summer 2015.

Terminal extension
A less ambitious alternative would extend the North Terminal further south, with another passenger bridge to an area currently occupied by aircraft stands without jet bridges (Pier 7). However, figure A.12 in Gatwick's new draft master plan released for consultation on 13 October 2011 seems to discard the earlier-mooted Pier 7 option in favour of a mid-field satellite adjacent to the control tower that would be linked to the North Terminal if built as part of an expanded single-runway, two-terminal airport scenario around 2030. There are also plans to extend Pier 6.

In October 2009, BAA submitted planning applications for Gatwick to handle an extra six million passengers a year by 2018 and for an extension to the North Terminal to provide new check-in facilities and additional baggage reclaim hall capacity, along with a 900 space short-stay car park. Crawley Borough Council's decision to approve these plans was upheld in November 2009 by the Government's refusal to hold a public inquiry despite objections from local environmental protesters.

In October 2010, Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL) received planning permission from Crawley Borough Council to adapt both terminals to handle the Airbus A380 on a regular, commercial basis. At the Gatcom meeting held on 26 January 2012 at Crawley's Arora Hotel, GAL announced that its board had approved construction of A380 pier infrastructure comprising new three-bridge gates at the North Terminal's Pier 6. The first of these became operational on 26 March 2013.

'Heathwick' rail link
In late-2011 the Department for Transport began studying the feasibility of a high-speed rail link between Gatwick and Heathrow Airport. This rail link would form part of a plan to combine the UK's two biggest airports into a "collective" or "virtual hub" dubbed Heathwick. The scheme envisages a 35-mile high-speed rail route linking the two airports in 15 minutes, with trains travelling at a top speed of 180 mph parallel to the M25 and passengers passing through immigration or check-in only once.

Incidents and accidents

 * 15 September 1936 – a British Airways Ltd de Havilland DH 86 operating a night mail flight to Germany crashed on takeoff, killing the airline's chief pilot and two members of the aircraft's crew.
 * November 1936 – a British Airways Ltd Fokker F 12 crashed in a wood 4.5 mi south of Gatwick whilst executing its final approach to the airport under a low ceiling in poor visibility, killing both pilots and severely injuring the engineer.
 * 17 February 1959 – a Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount 794D (registration: TC-SEV) on an international charter flight crashed in heavy fog at Newdigate, Surrey, whilst approaching to land at Gatwick. The plane hit some trees. Fourteen of 24 on board died. Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was amongst the survivors.
 * 2 September 1963 – an Iberia Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation (registration: EC-AMQ) leased by Aviaco and operating a charter flight from Barcelona, Spain, brushed trees on Russ Hill while on final approach to London Gatwick. Although the aircraft sustained minor damage as a result of this incident, which occurred during the descent, ca. 220 ft above and 1.75 NM from the runway threshold, it landed safely and none of the 75 passengers on board were injured.
 * 5 January 1969 – a Boeing 727-113C (registration: YA-FAR) operating flight 701 of Ariana Afghan Airlines arriving from Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport, Germany, crashed into a house in Fernhill near Horley, Surrey, in low visibility. The flaps were not extended to maintain flight at final approach speed. Forty-eight of the 62 on board died as well as two on the ground.
 * 28 January 1972 – a British Caledonian Vickers VC10-1109 (registration: G-ARTA) sustained severe structural damage as a result of an exceptionally hard landing at Gatwick at the end of a short ferry flight from Heathrow, where the aircraft had been diverted due to Gatwick being fog-bound and where all passengers had disembarked. A survey of the aircraft's damage revealed that its airframe had been bent out of shape and that it required extensive repairs to be restored to an airworthy condition. The airline's senior management decided that these repairs were not cost-effective. The aircraft was written off and a decision taken to have it scrapped. It was eventually broken up at Gatwick in 1975.
 * 20 July 1975 – a British Island Airways (BIA) Handley Page Dart Herald 201 (registration: G-APWF) was involved in a runway accident while departing on a scheduled flight to Guernsey. The aircraft lifted off from runway 26 after a ground run of 2,490 ft and appeared airborne for 411 ft with its landing gear retracting before the rear underside of the fuselage settled back on to the runway, bringing the aircraft to a stop. The investigation concluded that the landing gear was retracted before the aircraft had become established in a climb, contributed by use of an incorrect flap setting and incorrect takeoff speeds. Although the aircraft suffered substantial damage, none of the 45 occupants were hurt.

Notes and citations

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