Today the umbrella aviation community and environmental group, CAGNE, releases a report on the issues Gatwick Airport faces, as a leisure airport reliant upon over 80% European flights and business.
“Aviation has proven time and time again that it is a volatile industry, even though it is heavily subsidised by everyone being exempt from paying VAT or duty on fuel, unlike other industries,” said CAGNE spokesperson. “The British Airways announcement that they may not return to Gatwick Airport post-Coronavirus is another headache for this airport’s foreign owners (Vinci now owns 50.01% with GIP 49.99%). Another flagship airline, Norwegian Air, faced financial problems even before the pandemic caused worldwide lockdown.”
“Gatwick Airport’s business format is just not sustainable as it is too reliant upon leisure travel, low cost flights and surplus consumer spend. With over 80% of flights to Europe, it was bound to suffer post-Brexit, without the Coronavirus factor added in.”
It took Gatwick Airport 6 years to recover from the 2002 recession. This time, this leisure airport faces not just a world recession, but the ramifications of a worldwide pandemic that could leave the consumer reluctant to fly, in fear of health concerns and being stranded overseas, as well as Brexit inflation and trade issues.
“We have to question whether local authorities should be so reliant upon one sector, a volatile industry, as time and time again we see world events impact this airport. Local communities could be in danger of facing the same ramifications as the miners faced, reliant upon one industry to provide economic security,” said CAGNE.
Gatwick saw a decline in passenger numbers during 2019 as a result of the consumer’s awareness of climate change and the impact aviation has on global heating. Airbus and Rolls Royce have recently drawn a line under electric aircraft manufacturing.
Gatwick, now in 2020, predicts 4 years* to see a return to business-as-usual, having secured £300m of additional debt, whilst history shows that it took 6 years for Gatwick to recover its leisure market from recession in 2002.
The CAGNE report highlights the half-truths in the 2019 report Gatwick Airport financial report **, and how Gatwick Airport will suffer the most in a declining market place:
- Planned jobs losses – before the coronavirus, Gatwick had introduced computerised baggage-handling, check-in and car parking, air traffic control is leaving the aviation industry, and government is seeking to modernise airspace so that the system can be computerised further, so reducing employment.
- Health concerns – will be a major hurdle in attracting the consumer back to leisure-flying, as well as facing health checks, with 4 hour check-in, and quarantine on landing.
- False economy – as in the last recession, passenger numbers at Gatwick dipped by 11% and took 6 years to recover. By contrast, Heathrow’s numbers dipped by 3% and took 4 years to recovery
- Environmental impact – Gatwick’s ‘halfway to meeting net zero’ statement is misleading, in that it does not include the emissions from arriving and departing aircraft (over 280,000), or that they burn waste in an onsite incinerator. Gatwick also has a growing problem of aircraft noise with communities of Sussex, Surrey and Kent. The demise of the Gatwick Noise Management Board, which did not meet its geographical spread throughout its 3 years (focusing purely on communities furthest from the airport), left many communities closest to the runway ignored and vulnerable to aircraft noise being moved over those recognised by government as significantly affected by aircraft noise.
- Less demand – as businesses find working from home and online conferences calls can reduce the costs and carbon footprint of flying to meetings.
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