Transatlantic routes have driven Gatwick Airport to record passenger numbers and its busiest ever March.
The gateway posted growth in the month of 2.5 per cent on last year, with a total of 3.5 million passengers passing through.
With long-haul routes up 23.2 per cent year-on-year (YOY), March also saw Gatwick once again adding to its global connectivity, launching two new long-haul routes to Austin and Chicago, as well as announcing Qatar Airways’ impending new service to Doha.
The airport’s 61st consecutive month of growth saw a considerable percentage increase in passengers travelling to the US and Canada, up 37 per cent on March last year. Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles saw large percentage increases of 83.1 per cent and 53.4 per cent respectively, along with Toronto, which was 13.5 per cent.
Gatwick’s Asia routes continued to grow in March too, with passengers to Hong Kong up 67 per cent YOY. A number of African destinations also performed well – Casablanca up 82.9 per cent and Banjul 57.6 per cent.
Elsewhere, Gatwick’s short-haul business route network continued to expand in March, with easyJet announcing a new thrice-daily service to Berlin Tegel, due to launch this May.
Gatwick Airport chief executive officer, Stewart Wingate said: “Passenger demand for our transatlantic routes continues to boom with new services to Austin and Chicago with Norwegian starting in March – along with British Airways adding further capacity to Toronto with their new thrice-weekly service.
“As our performance in March demonstrates, Gatwick is playing an increasingly important role for the country on the world stage, providing global connectivity at a time when the UK really needs it.
“We have exciting plans for future growth at the airport, maximising the use of our existing facilities whilst continuing to offer the country the prospect of a financeable and deliverable new runway scheme.”
