This Easter school holiday, London Gatwick Airport will support flights to 90% of the destinations it offered passengers during the same period in 2019.
Gatwick Easter 2023
London Gatwick – part of VINCI Airports’ network – will serve 177 destinations this Easter, compared to 197 in the same period in 2019 (90%), with total flight volumes recovering to 86%.
The most popular destinations for Easter getaways include Barcelona, Dublin and Malaga, while Dubai, New York and Orlando top the long-haul charts.
Gatwick’s busiest day for departures is expected to be Thursday 6 April, while Easter Monday is predicted to be the busiest day overall.
Over the past two weeks, Gatwick has welcomed several new routes, including Air India flights to Goa, Kochi, Amritsar and Ahmedabad, Air China operations to Beijing, British Airways services to Las Vegas, Aruba and Georgetown, and Wizz Air will fly to Istanbul and Nice.
Delta Air Lines will begin operating from London Gatwick to New York next week, while later this month on 23 April, Lufthansa will arrive at Gatwick with daily flights to Frankfurt.
Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, London Gatwick Airport said: “Following a strong recovery in 2022, we are delighted to see passenger demand continue into the Easter holidays.
“We’ve recently welcomed a number of fantastic new airlines and destinations, with more on the horizon.”
“This is great news for passengers across London and the South East. Our recovery is continuing strongly and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming passengers over the Easter period and beyond.”
Easter 2019 performance
According to data provided by Gatwick airport, over the Easter period in 2019 (which ran from Friday, April 19 to Monday, April 22), the airport handled a total of 863,395 passengers.
This represented a slight decrease of 3.3% compared to the same period in the previous year of 2108. The cause of this decrease was attributed to the timing of the Easter holidays and the impact of Brexit-related uncertainty on travel demand.
Despite the overall decrease in passenger numbers, Gatwick airport saw strong demand for flights to a number of popular Easter holiday destinations, including Dubai, Barcelona, and Amsterdam.
The airport also reported high volumes of passengers traveling to visit friends and family over the holiday period.
Recent Air China flight resumptions
Gatwick is the UK’s second largest airport and is a vital piece of national infrastructure that helps drive both the regional and national economy.
More than 40 airlines fly from the airport to over 150 short-haul and more than 45 long-haul destinations.
Gatwick Airport has also recently welcomed the return of Air China, with the resumption of services to Beijing.
The Chinese flag-carrier is now operating four flights per week to Beijing Capital International Airport, with frequency increasing to daily services from 24 April.
This is the first time since early 2020 that flights have run between Gatwick and China, and will support increasing demand for travel between the two countries.
The flights also provide a rather welcome economic boost the tourism industry in London and the Southeast, with Chinese visitors spending £1,828 per visit and £1.8 billion in 2019, according to Visit Britain.
