London-Gatwick Airport

Concerning the London-Gatwick airport, which is known as Gatwick airport as well, it is a major international airport, which is near Crawley in West Sussex. West Sussex is in southeast England, 29.5 miles, 47.5 km, south of Central London and The airport is the second-busiest airport in the UK according to total passenger traffic, after Heathrow Airport. As for Europe, the airport is the ninth-busiest airport in the area. London-Gatwick Airport covers an area of 674 hectares, which is 1,670 acres.

London-Gatwick Airport

About London-Gatwick airport

Concerning the London-Gatwick airport, which is known as Gatwick airport as well, it is a major international airport, which is near Crawley in West Sussex. West Sussex is in southeast England, 29.5 miles, 47.5 km, south of Central London and The airport is the second-busiest airport in the UK according to total passenger traffic, after Heathrow Airport. As for Europe, the airport is the ninth-busiest airport in the area. London-Gatwick Airport covers an area of 674 hectares, which is 1,670 acres.

The airport was opened as an aerodrome in the 1920s. However, it has been operating for commercial flights since 1933.

Airport Use

A passenger can find there two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal. They cover areas of 98,000 m2, which is 117,000 sq yd, and respectively 160,000 m2, which is 190,000 sq yd. It works as a single-runway airport. The airport uses the main runway with a length of 3,316 m, which is 10,879 ft. A secondary track is accessible as well, and however, due to the proximity of the main runway, it can be provided if the main runway is out of use. Compared to 2017, in 2018, this airport had a 1,1% increase in passenger enplanements, as there were 46.1 million passengers through the airport. Worth noting that Gatwick is the second busiest airport around the world, which operates only one runway as for 2019. However, till 2017, Gatwick was the busiest airport, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport started working. In 2018, there were 46 million passengers in only one runway.

The Capacity and Business Activity

Even though there are two runways at the airport, only one operates. The northern track will be used only when the main track (08R/26L) is not available. Nearly 75% of takeoffs are toward the west, 74% over 12 months. The wideness of both tracks is 148 ft, which is 45 m, they are 200 m, 656 ft, apart. The main reason why both of them are not operating is that this length is insufficient to use both runways simultaneously. As a taxiway during normal operations, the northern track can be used, it is consistent with its original construction, even though it was expanded.

The airport in October 2018 announced that they were trying to find new ways to use both runways simultaneously. New technology could be implemented to expand capacity on the main track, and they even wanted to construct a new runway to the south side of the airport area. The London-Gatwick airport has many airlines, such as British Airways (BA), Norwegian Air Shuttle, Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet, as well as TUI Airways. Gatwick is one of a kind amongst London's airports, as they are representing three main airline business models: charter, full service, as well as low-cost. EasyJet flew over 100 routes from the airport, as well as more than 60 aircraft.

History and Present-day Operations

The land where nowadays the airport stands, at first, was developed as an aerodrome in the 1920s. However, in 1933, The Air Ministry permitted commercial flights, and the first terminal was established in 1935. The name of this terminal was The Beehive. However, Scheduled air services began the following year from the new terminal. During the 1950s, Major Development work took place at the airport. Yorke Rosenberg Mardall established those buildings from 1955 till 1988. London-Gatwick Airport is operated, as well as owned by Gatwick Airport Limited, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ivy Holdco Limited, as well as by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). In 2019, Vinci completed the payment, which was announced in December 2018. However, In 2015, the airport became the first single-runway to handle more than 40 million passengers every year. By 2016, EasyJet managed over 40% of Gatwick's total passengers. Gatwick airport is 35th busiest international airport in the world according to global passenger traffic, and the eighth busiest airport in Europe. As for the low-cost airport, it is the world's leading airport. Until March 2017, the airport had a maximum of 55 aircraft operations per hour.