Gatwick Airport will welcome nearly 750,000 passengers over Christmas and New Years.
The number is likely to be a 570 percent increase from 2020 due to last year’s Covid-19 restrictions.
The holiday season is traditionally one of the busiest of the year for Gatwick, outside of the summer peak, as the airport welcomed more than 1.6 million passengers between December 18 and 31, before the pandemic.
The busiest days departures this year are expected to be December 19, 23 and 26 with around 33,000 – 35,000 passengers per day.
Passengers planning to travel this Christmas will be buffed this week with the arrival of two new airlines in Gatwick.
Scoot, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, started flights to Bangkok three times a week on December 16, while the regional airline Eastern Airways started its daily flight to Newquay on December 15.
Also the popular low-cost airline Wizz returned to Gatwick this week with flights to Athens, Malta, Lanzarote and Malaga, while Emirates also resumed daily flights to Dubai earlier this month.
Jonathan Pollard, Gatwick Airport’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We are encouraged by the number of people who are traveling this Christmas and enjoying a much-needed family vacation or visiting friends and family overseas.
« It’s also positive to see the strong bookings for new and returning airlines, and we look forward to adding more routes and choice for passengers in the new year. »
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