Latest News from Gatwick

Business and Community

• Gatwick has announced vacancies for more than 1,200 retail, restaurant, check-in desk assistance and luggage handling roles.  This reflects Gatwick’s continued growth as we get ready to face our busiest summer on record.  More than 800 jobs are being offered from across the airport’s retail and restaurant portfolio whilst recruitment is underway for more than 400 jobs for ground handling agents, the companies which provide check-in desk assistance for passengers as well as loading/unloading luggage and cargo onto aircraft at Gatwick. More…

• The airport had its busiest March on record last month, +2.5% on last year, with a total of 3.5 million passengers passing through.  With long-haul routes +23.2% year-on-year, 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.  More…
• In March, the Gatwick Foundation Fund awarded £100,000 to 21 deserving projects across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. To date, 80 organisations and more than 46,000 people have benefited from the Gatwick Foundation Fund, with reported improvements in the services provided, which cover four main areas: Employment, training and skills; Families; Widening horizons and Elderly people. More…

• More than 40 local families with a family member who has a hidden disability attended Gatwick on Sunday (8 April) for an event designed to make airports feel like ‘a less scary place’.  Held in the North Terminal, Gatwick’s Accessibility Day helped to familiarise people with a hidden disability – and their families and carers - with the sights and sounds of an airport so they have a practical overview of airport processes before they travel. Gatwick is aiming to be the most accessible airport in the UK and is currently engaging with a broad range of disability groups to help ensure that the airport makes its services accessible for everyone. More…

• We have announced a new partnership with Kew’s wild botanic garden at Wakehurst Place to support a bursary programme for schools in the South East. It will cover the cost of travel to the site for schools with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to access Wakehurst’s wide variety of educational activities which meet curriculum targets across a range of subjects including Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). The partnership, which also provides corporate membership benefits for the airport’s staff, sits within Gatwick’s Education Strategy ‘Inform, Inspire, Invest’, which includes partnerships with other STEM initiatives, such as the Big Bang Fair and Learn Live broadcasts.  More…

• Earlier this month London Gatwick announced its charity partners for the next two years. 

Following a Gatwick staff vote, St Catherine’s Hospice has been selected as the airport’s local charity partner, while Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust has also been selected as a strategic partner.  Together the two charities will join Gatwick’s longstanding charity partnership with TravelCare, which has served alongside the airport’s terminals since 1986. Based in the South Terminal, every day the Gatwick TravelCare team helps to resolve a wide range of welfare issues including missed flights, passport irregularities as well as providing emotional support. More…

Noise and Airspace

• Gatwick continues to support a substantial programme of work to manage the impacts aircraft operations.  While we can't eliminate aircraft noise completely, our goal is to reduce it as much as possible.  We work closely with the Noise Management Board (NMB) which brings together industry partners and community representatives to oversee joint strategies to deal with noise around the airport.   To find out the latest information on the work of the Noise Management Board, read NMB Chair Bo Redeborn’s latest blog.

• Following the legal judgement to quash the CAA’s Route 4 Standard Instrument Departure routes Post Implementation Review in April 2017, our Head of Airspace Strategy Andy Sinclair provides an update on the current situation and planned next steps in his latest Airspace blog.

• Gatwick commissioned an independent study to look at the perception of aircraft height and noise following a recommendation from the 2015 Independent Arrivals Review. The academic study has been published, and its main findings can be found in bullet point format here.