Gatwick boss says airport is prepped to avoid chaos – despite strikes and cancellations
Gatwick’s boss has said that the airport is not expecting further flight cancellations over the busy summer season.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Stewart Wingate said “I haven’t had any discussions with any other airlines [about cancellations].”
He added: “I think that from the perspective of passengers, if there’s a need for an airline to do this, you’d much rather they did it in advance as opposed to on the day.”
His comments come despite news this week that budget airline Easyjet ditched nearly 2,000 flights for the period, mostly departing from Gatwick, on the back of ongoing French Air Traffic Controller (ATC) walk-outs and disruption in Ukrainian airspace due to Russia’s war in the Eastern European country.
This was followed by an announcement that 1,000 Gatwick baggage handlers and check-in staff would strike in late July and early August, after Unite union members backed fresh action in a ballot.
As the sector approaches the busiest period of what is expected to be a record summer of travel, the week’s events spiked concern that a repeat of last summer’s travel chaos could be on the cards.
Wingate, though, told the Sunday Times he believes the West Sussex hub is well prepped to avoid repeating its failures in past years.
“We’ve put an awful lot of effort into making sure that the experience is going to be a good one, with a particular focus on getting passengers through security quickly,” he said, with airport infrastructure a key pillar of the airport’s strategy.
Gatwick recently announced it had submitted proposals to the planning inspectorate for a £2.2bn second runway at the airport, which also included improving roads around the airport’s North and South Terminals to reduce traffic congestion.
Speaking to City PM at the time, Wingate said that one of his concerns for the summer was “en route delays that aircrafts are picking up,” particularly as a result of ATC walk-outs.
“We are mindful that there could be some level of of delay, you know, passengers will have to sort of be a little bit tolerant of those en route delays.”
However, he was quick to add that the airport was about “as well prepared as we can be.”
“In terms of our preparation at the airport, passengers should get through check in fine, they should get through security areas fine, all of the restaurants, bars and shops are operational, we’ve reopened all of those and both terminals.”