London Gatwick Airport Scraps Capacity Caps

Simple Flying

By Linnea Ahlgren

Published Aug 23, 2022

The airport says it is back to operating at "business as usual."

Photo: Gatwick Airport

In order to deal with the unprecedented long-term chaos caused by staffing issues at several European airports this summer, some of them resorted to the unconventional measure of capping capacity. While Amsterdam Schiphol and London Heathrow will keep caps until the winter season, Gatwick Airport (LGW) has announced it will lift restrictions by the end of August. Gatwick has hired about 400 additional security staff to help address labor shortages and is now upgrading its full-year passenger estimate to 32.8 million.

"Business as usual"

The airport's Chief Executive Officer, Stewart Wingate, said Gatwick still had some way to go. Still, that strong demand had fast-tracked post-pandemic recovery, particularly in the last quarter with all UK travel restrictions removed. As a result of the rebound effect, passenger demand was back to about 75% of pre-COVID levels in Q3 and at nearly 60% for the half-year period. Wingate further stated,

“The unprecedented growth in traffic led to short term operational issues in June, however our decisive early action to limit the airport’s capacity in the crucial school holiday period of July and August has ensured passengers have experienced reliable flight timetables over the summer months. We are now very much operating business as usual and do not see any reason to extend the capacity declaration.”

Hiring issues remain at LHR

Gatwick was one of the first airports to limit capacity as a response to hours-long queues for security and canceled flights. The airport announced in June that it would cap air traffic at about 20% lower than normal levels to ensure smoother operations. While the hiring spree seems to have worked well for LGW, its larger neighbor has not had the same luck.

The UK's busiest airport, London Heathrow, announced a week ago that it was extending its capacity cap through October, the end of the summer season, following prolonged issues with ground handling employment. On Monday, British Airways said it would ax 10,000 flights from LHR between October 2022 and March 2023. The cancellations will be announced well in advance, the airline said, but also promised to keep its schedule for popular destinations during the autumn school vacations.

An unidentified plane landing at London Heathrow Airport. — Photo: London Heathrow Airport

Mixed feelings on Tuesday for easyJet

The lifting of the curbs on capacity will be welcomed by easyJet, Gatwick's largest operator. However, while Tuesday has brought good news for the airline, it has also brought more disruption as several of easyJet's flights out of the airport were canceled due to staff sickness in the control tower. Gatwick confirmed to the BBC that out of 180 easyJet services, 13 departures and 13 arrivals had been canceled.