Delayed flights, cancelled airport trains and long queues for UK Border Force: Gatwick is gearing up for a busy summer.
Flights and passenger numbers at Gatwick have almost doubled over the weekend as the airlines’ summer schedules begin and the airport reopens its South Terminal after nearly two years.
The first flight out of the terminal – which was closed in June 2020 – was on Wizz Air to Malaga, at 6.30am on Sunday. But as it departed, passengers for later flights were frantically trying to reach Gatwick in taxis, after trains were cancelled due to staff shortage.
Southern Rail blamed “a shortage of train crew” for the cancellation of trains between 4.15am and 6.35am.
No bus replacement was offered for the 28-mile journey, which normally takes half an hour.
The South Terminal was reopened on a weekend when Network Rail engineering work closed the main link from London Victoria station.
An alternative service was planned from London Bridge to Gatwick, but only for one train an hour. Due to train crew sickness, that plan turned into no trains for a two hour, 20 minute spell.
On a normal weekday, trains run every few minutes on the rail links between London and Gatwick.
Taxis and private hire cars were charging £100 or more – 10 times the price of a one-way ticket.
Passengers who made it to the airport found a very different look to South Terminal. Wizz Air – Europe’s third-biggest budget airline after Ryanair and easyJet – has set up a five-aircraft base at Gatwick,
Marion Geoffroy, managing director of Wizz Air UK, told The Independent: “You fly a fleet which is brand-new - it’s very silent, it’s very comfortable.”
She said that the expansion at Gatwick would not mean cutbacks at Luton, the main UK base for Wizz Air. “We are also expanding at Luton, with many new destinations.”
One link that did not go ahead was what was planned to be the first-ever direct flight between the UK and Odessa in Ukraine. Wizz Air was due to launch a link from Luton, while Ryanair was planning flights from Stansted. Both have been suspended.
Back at Gatwick: for the first time in five years, easyJet passengers must check which terminal they are using. In January 2017 all flights on Britain’s biggest budget airline were consolidated at North Terminal.
But as easyJet launches its largest-ever programme from Gatwick, there is not sufficient room and an additional facility has been set up in South Terminal – which flights numbered between 6400 and 6599 will use.
Passengers on one easyJet flight, from Malaga, due in on Sunday afternoon arrived in the early hours of Monday morning. They were told: “Your plane was delayed on the previous flight due to a technical issue.”
The Monday morning British Airways arrival from St Lucia is running three hours late.
BA will launch its first European flights for two years on Tuesday, starting with an early departure to Larnaca. The new operation is run by a low-cost subsidiary, and is about half the scale of the previous British Airways schedule.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Gatwick was the busiest single-runway airport in the world, and in the European top 10. Passenger numbers collapsed, and during 2021 the airport lost an average of £1m per day.
Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s chief executive, said: “Passenger demand is really strong. We’re going to have a significantly busier April, May and June than we expected.
“We’re going to bounce back quickly this summer.”
On Sunday evening and Monday morning, some arriving travellers complained about long queues at passport control.
Paul Nessling posted a picture of the UK Border and wrote on Instagram: “Nice to see one person working at Gatwick this morning … @gatwickairport what a joke!”
