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16 - Jan - 2015

Vying for the No. 1 spot!

Heathrow and gatweick

This week saw the UK’s two leading airports – Heathrow and Gatwick, both of which are being considered for runway expansion - reporting record passenger numbers in 2014.  73.4 million passed through Heathrow; 38 million through Gatwick, and it’s not surprising that these figures of growth were seized upon by the ‘powers that be’ at both airports as yet more evidence that they should be the airport chosen by the Airports Commission for expansion.

But look at the figures in comparison to percentage increase and it tells a different story.  Heathrow showed an increase of just 1.4% in passenger growth, sitting behind Charles de Gaulle in Paris which rose by 2.8% and Frankfurt in Germany reporting an increase of 2.6% - Gatwick outstripped all three airports with a reported growth of 7.6%! 

But when it comes to vying for the No. 1 spot, Heathrow has become a little unstuck.  Yes, they are still the No. 1 airport hub in Europe, followed by Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Ataturk in Istanbul (which leapt to fourth place beating Amsterdam Schiphol).  But when it comes to leading the world, Heathrow has lost top spot to Dubai International – prediction that has proved correct.  It’s no secret that Dubai has been targeting that No. 1 international spot for a while and puts their success down to capacity of aircraft to fly longer distances, with more passengers, cancelling out the need of Heathrow as a hub airport on certain intercontinental flights – adding yet more fuel to the argument of Heathrow expansion.

Gatwick retains their No. 1 spot of the world’s busiest single runway airport – not a difficult accolade to achieve at the moment for the airport; it would be interesting to see how they fare if they are awarded the second runway they so desperately want…  Maybe better than one might think as the airport becomes the first to launch a language and accessibility web app to their website. 

Gatwick currently serves 200 destinations in 90 countries; out of more than 38 million passengers a year, approximately 1 in 5 people in the UK are disabled.  Adding cutting edge accessibility and language software to their website in Recite Me – the first airport in the UK to provide this service for their passengers – about 12 million people will not be able to view Gatwick’s website content in the best way that suits them; plus it is cloud-based so works on any platform, including mobile devices!  But that’s not the only technology, or accessibility, that Gatwick has added to their repertoire; welcome to the Workpod!  In Gatwick’s South and North terminals, the Workpod is a private workspace, provided by Regus, that has been tailor-made for business travellers and offers them a quiet place to work whilst waiting for their flights.  With a comfortable work area, mobile and power charger points, computer screen, business-class Wi-Fi and telephone to allow users to make UK calls, the Workpod is proving popular among business travellers. Bookable either online via Regus’ website or ‘on the spot’ at Gatwick, it ticks the right boxes and reinforces the airport’s No. 1 spot.

 

By Airport Pickups London