Gatwick aims to double India traffic in 5 years CCO Jonathan Pollard | News

There are a total of six airports in London. Only two of them—Gatwick and Heathrow—have flights to India. Heathrow, the largest London airport, handles 232 services per week to and from India.3 min read Last Updated : Jun 17 2024 | 8:06 PM IST
Gatwick Airport aims to double its India flights in the next five years as the demand for direct flights between India and the UK is huge, Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer at London Gatwick Airport, told Business Standard in an interview.

Currently, a total of 24 flights per week are being operated between India and Gatwick Airport. Air India has been operating all 24 services since April last year.

“I think a realistic view, five years from now, would be having six or seven daily flights to India. This would mean 49 flights to India per week. Based on the conversations we have had, that would be a reasonable target for us,” Pollard noted.

There are a total of six airports in London. Only two of them—Gatwick and Heathrow—have flights to India. Heathrow, the largest London airport, handles 232 services per week to and from India.

Under the bilateral agreement signed between India and the UK, there is no limit on the number of flights that can be started between Gatwick and six major Indian cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai. “Therefore, the growth opportunity is huge,” he noted.

Pollard said the traffic between India and Gatwick is predominantly point-to-point. “We would certainly welcome the opportunity to provide some onward connectivity. However, right now, Air India’s services are less than a year old. Therefore, between India and Gatwick, it is predominantly point-to-point traffic. Maybe, as the network grows, there would be routes that are less point-to-point dependent,” he mentioned.

Even if Gatwick is able to fulfill its aforementioned target of handling 49 India flights per week, the size of its India operations would still be significantly smaller than that of Heathrow. “That is because of the slot capacity. Most of our new slot capacity would come on stream from 2029,” he mentioned.

Gatwick Airport currently has two runways but can operate only one at a time as the centre lines of both runways are too close. “Once we move the centre lines, we would be able to use both at the same time. We are looking for permission to do this by 2029,” he noted.

Gatwick Airport currently has the capacity to handle 55 aircraft movements per hour. The airport would be handling 44 million passengers this year and it is expecting to handle “north of 50 million passengers” in three years, he noted.

“A lot of people are currently travelling between India and London via the Middle East. India is underserved massively from the UK by the direct flight capacity. That has been beneficial for some Middle Eastern carriers. I am sure that will still continue. There is a market for both (one-stop as well as non-stop) flights between India and London. There is undeniably more opportunity for direct flight capacity,” he added.First Published: Jun 17 2024 | 8:06 PM IST