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Hellenic Imperial Airways (HIA) will begin operating a thrice-weekly service from Gatwick Airport to Athens, Greece, on July 1 2011. The route is being sold on the strength of Athens Airport’s connections to destinations in the Middle East, such as Kuwait and Dubai.

Athens, alongside New York, London, and Paris, is one of the most recognisable cities in the world. The Greek capital has stood, in some form or another, for more than 3,400 years, and many of Athens’ most popular landmarks, such as the Acropolis, have defied time and the elements to dominate the skyline centuries after they were originally built.

Despite having just seven routes on its schedules, Hellenic is one of the larger carriers flying out of Athens Airport, after Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air. HIA began its life as a provider of flights from Saudi Arabia to Birmingham, via its home city, Athens. The route was eventually scrapped, but HIA continues to offer long-haul services to North America, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates.

A 375-seat aircraft will be used by HIA on its new flight to London. However, the success of the route hinges on the Greek carrier’s ability to compete with budget airline, easyJet, which currently offers an identical route to Athens from the Crawley airport. EasyJet’s route to Athens is well established, having been in constant operation for almost nine years.

HIA’s latest expansion is designed to ‘open up’ Greece to the rest of the world, according to transfer firm, easyBus, quoting the Press Association. Travel agents are being offered 5% commission by the airline on every ticket sold on the Gatwick to Athens service.

Izmir, the Pearl of Turkey, to quote a local tourist guide, is the newest destination on offer from Gatwick Airport. The flight was added by budget carrier, easyJet, on May 14 2011.

EasyJet, sporting colours that would make a beach ball blush, is one of the largest carriers at Gatwick, offering flights to more than ninety cities in Europe, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The airline’s flight to Izmir joins four other destinations in Turkey, namely, Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum, and Istanbul, on easyJet’s summer schedules.

Airline chief, Paul Simmons, said that Izmir is popular with “year-round sun seekers”. The resort is located within the archaeologically significant area of Anatolia, on the shores of the Aegean Sea. “As one of the most popular tourist cities in the country, it is a perfect holiday choice”, explained Mr. Simmons. The city’s sights include the Izmir Clock Tower, built from marble at the turn of the 20th century, and Izmir’s ‘historic centre’, Alsancak, home to the oldest railway station in Turkey.

Online booking service, Opodo, claims that easyJet will soon supplement its Gatwick schedules with a further three flights to European destinations. Verona and Catania in Italy, and sunny Aberdeen in Scotland, will be the sixth, seventh, and eighth new route to be added by easyJet at Gatwick in 2011. Flights to the three destinations are already available for booking, but it is not yet clear when the routes will begin operating.

Planes bound for Izmir depart the Crawley airport twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

On the 17th May 2011 No. 1 Traveller opened their brand new super lounge in the North terminal at Gatwick Airport. The lounge offers passengers a Travel Spa, Airport Lounge and Business Centre.

The lounge should revolutionise the airport experience by making passengers' time waiting for flights enjoyable. The lounge costs £20 to enter and includes a bistro style food menu, fully tended bar, mini cinema room, games room and free Wi-Fi.

What makes this super lounge different is the Spa where customers can take advantage of luxurious showers, have a massage, enjoy a manicure, have a hair cut and even experience a garra rufa fish foot massage.

Business travellers should consider using the Business Centre where passengers can take advantage of individual computer systems, email, printing and fax facilities as well as private meeting rooms which can be rented out for as little as £12.50.

The new lounge modernises Gatwick Airport and the airport’s Chief Commercial Officer, Robin Longden is overjoyed by the introduction of the new lounge. Robin Longden made the following statement: 

“At Gatwick, we want our passengers to feel as if their holiday starts right here at the airport and not at the point at which they reach their chosen holiday destination.  Our £1billion investment programme is geared towards making the passenger experience more pleasant and enjoyable – providing better, speedier check-in products, shorter queues at security and delivering more modern, spacious departure lounge areas.  The new No.1 Traveller lounge in Gatwick’s North Terminal will complement the improvements being delivered across the entire airport.”

No. 1 Traveller are so confident about their new type of super lounge they are already planning to open a grander lounge at Heathrow Airport in August 2011.

The new lounge sets a new standard for airport lounge and it will not be long until the other airport lounges are following No. 1 Traveller’s example.

Durban, a port city in the Republic of South Africa, could soon be accessible from Gatwick Airport, courtesy of Comair.

Comair, not to be confused with the American airline of the same name, was borne from “idle chatter amongst three pilots in the middle of the Egyptian Desert”, back in the mid-forties. The carrier is a franchise partner of British Airways, operating routes to Cape Town, Livingstone, and Victoria Falls, among other African destinations.

The airline’s new route would be the first direct link between London and Durban in “more than a decade”, to quote Linda Pampallis, leader of tour operator, Thompsons Africa. The flight would travel from Gatwick to King Shaka Airport in La Mercy, South Africa, but the details of the landmark connection have yet to be revealed, or even decided.

However, tourism bosses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where the city of Durban is located, have questioned Comair’s commitment to forging links between London and South Africa. Ndabo Khoza, leader of KwaZulu-Natal’s tourist board, noted that holiday chiefs would rather “get all our ducks in a row”, before proceeding with marketing and ticket sales on the route.

Despite the concern, the development has been described as “exciting” and “amazing” by South Africans. While the reaction might seem a little over-enthusiastic, the brand new King Shaka Airport has only one international airline (Emirates) on its books, offering a single route to Dubai. People wishing to travel to the UK, or indeed, anywhere else, must first journey to Johannesburg, a detour that people are “getting tired of”, according to Durban Chamber of Commerce boss, Andrew Layman.

Comair’s new route is unlikely to take off until 2012 at the earliest.

The number of on-time flights departing Gatwick Airport has decreased significantly since the hub was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2009, says a newspaper.

Almost 10% of commercial aircraft movements at Gatwick were delayed by more than an hour in 2010, according to the London Evening Standard, a two-fold increase, when compared to the figures for the previous year. The development stands at odds with a promise made by the GIP shortly after the fund forked out £1.5bn for the Crawley hub in October 2009, to “provide a better experience for passengers”.

Many airports experienced higher than normal delays and cancellations in 2010, due to heavy snowfall and a dusting of volcanic ash, but Gatwick’s runway punctuality problems are believed to be an internal issue, rather than something thrust upon the hub by Mother Nature. The true cause of the delays is not clear, but the fact that a spokesperson for Gatwick has not only acknowledged the issue, but presented figures to show improvement during the first few months of 2011, suggests that the GIP is concerned with the London hub’s time-keeping skills.

On-board delays, which can include hold-ups on the taxiway or in the air prior to landing, increased by 60% during 2010. The independent information source, flightontime.info, notes that some passengers had to wait up to 20 minutes between taking their seat and the plane taking off, a good three minutes longer than the national average. Perhaps even worse, however, is the steady increase in the number of passengers that are delayed by three or more hours, up from 0.79% in 2009, to 1.4% in 2010.

Gatwick bosses claim that airplane punctuality has already increased by 10% this year. “We will continue to work with our airlines and their handling agents to drive better performance", the spokesperson promised.

Beginning on March 22 2011, Nectar Card holders will be able to trade their points for flights at Gatwick, Bristol, Manchester, and any other UK airport served by easyJet.

Nectar, whose slogan is “you deserve it”, rewards shoppers for spending cash at particular supermarkets, websites, and high street outlets. Cardholders are typically awarded a number of points relative to the price of their purchase, which are then stored on the card for later use. Cards containing more than 500 points (equivalent to £2.50 in cash), can be used to pay for cinema tickets, train journeys, and a variety of other goods and services.

J. Sainsbury, founder of the Nectar scheme, claims that flights to 550 destinations in 30 countries will soon be available to cardholders. As the price of a flight to Spain or France (for example) often exceeds £100, holidaymakers will need to accrue more than 20,000 points before their Nectar Card has sufficient value to cover the price of a ticket. However, easyJet will accept payment using a combination of points and cash, helping shoppers acquire a discount on their flight or any associated taxes.

Head at J. Sainsbury, Justin King, said that the option to spend Nectar Points on flights was one of the most popular requests from cardholders. “Nearly a million collectors have enough points to pay for flights to popular destinations like Malaga", the chief executive explained. "It is estimated that approximately 300,000 flights per annum will be booked using Nectar Points.”

EasyJet boss, Carolyn McCall, referred to the carrier's newest partnership as “exciting”. Mrs. McCall noted that Nectar Points could theoretically be used on any flight, on any day, including more than 80 from Gatwick Airport.

The official website of Nectar Points is asking cardholders to visit the site on March 22, if they wish to learn more about how to book tickets using their Nectar Card.

An airline from Eastern Europe has launched a new flight from Gatwick Airport to the city of Kiev in the Ukraine. The route, which is AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines’ first ever service to the UK, could lure an extra 65,000 annual passengers to the Crawley hub.

Founded in 1994, AeroSvit specialises in flights to and from Russia, Kazakhstan, and its native Ukraine. The airline is the largest carrier in its homeland in terms of passengers carried, and claims to be the first airline based in the republic to offer “high quality service” and “modern standards of aviation security” to its customers.

AeroSvit’s Kiev service is the 18th new route to be introduced at Gatwick since the hub was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners in 2009, according to the airport’s chief, Stewart Wingate.

The Gatwick-Kiev route will operate five times a week, with no flights on Saturdays and Sundays. Connecting flights from Kiev’s Boryspil Airport to the Ukrainian cities of Odessa, Lugansk, and Ivano-Frankivsk are also available, opening up a wider area of Eastern Europe to the adventurous traveller.

Mr. Wingate said that AeroSvit’s decision to debut at Gatwick was indicative of the hub’s growing attractiveness to holidaymakers and airlines. “Our ambition is to become London’s airport of choice for passengers”, the chief executive explained. “This latest news highlights the progress we’re making.”

AeroSvit is the second airline in four months to strike a deal with bosses at the Crawley hub. Last year, Air Berlin abandoned two routes out of Stansted Airport, and moved part of its fleet to Gatwick. The German carrier cited better transport links at the Crawley hub as the impetus for the decision. AeroSvit boss, Alexander Avdieiev, has also commended the “excellent” links to London available around Gatwick Airport.

Self-proclaimed 'leading leisure airline' Monarch Airways reported a huge rise in the number of passengers choosing to fly with the veteran carrier in January 2011. Compared to the same period last year, 35,933 extra holidaymakers travelled on Monarch’s routes from 10 UK hubs, including Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Monarch says that the increase, equal to 24.07%, means that January 2011 was a record-breaking month for the carrier, and the best start to a year ever experienced by the 44-year-old airline. Load factors, defined by Monarch as the “number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available", were also up by 2%, from 76.75% in January 2010 to 78.74% in January 2011.

Destinations in southwestern Europe and the Mediterranean proved to be the most popular routes offered by the airline, as the cold weather in December encouraged UK holidaymakers to seek warmer climes.

Monarch is doing well. February’s press release was almost identical to earlier news items from the airline, which indicated that traffic levels for December and October 2010 were up 5.57% and 7.03% respectively. Load factors for December increased 12.88% over 2009, another record-breaking achievement for the airline. Alicante and Malaga in Spain were two of the most lucrative destinations during the last quarter of 2010 according to the airline.

With regard to January’s figures, Monarch cited the addition of a new route to Majorca from Gatwick and Manchester as a possible reason for the airline’s winter successes. From April 2011, the carrier will also increase capacity on seven routes from Gatwick, including Faro in Portugal and Lanzarote. Flights from Manchester Airport to six ‘sun and sea’ destinations will also have more seats throughout the summer season.

Inclement weather has been a staple of television news in recent weeks. The city of Chicago, USA, was buried beneath 20 inches of snow yesterday, while Queensland, Australia, was torn apart by Cyclone Yasi, believed to be the strongest storm ever to hit the state before it made landfall yesterday.

Closer to home, the UK suffered through several weeks of snow and freezing temperatures during December, with many businesses forced to close their doors to customers and employees alike. However, a consultancy firm, PKF, has revealed that last year’s snowstorm was not a total loss for British business.

Hotels in the area surrounding Gatwick and Heathrow airports actually benefitted from the plague of flight cancellations and delays that followed the first snowfall, posting an increased room uptake rate, as stranded passengers hunted down cheap accommodation.

London Heathrow Airport, which recently spent half a million pounds on new snow-clearing equipment, only to end up closed anyway, helped local hotels achieve a 10.6% boost in room occupancy, up to 79.5% overall. Hotels near Gatwick Airport also recorded higher occupancy rates for December 2010, up 15.5% to 73.6%. The popularity of rooms caused a hike in prices. Rates increased to £69.19 per night at Gatwick, and £75.97 at Heathrow, an average rise of around 14%.

The situation in London contrasted with that in Scotland, where occupancy at Edinburgh Airport hotels slumped to 59.2%. In comparison, accommodation near the Scottish hub managed to fill 67.8% of their rooms during December 2009. Robert Barnard, a partner of PKF, blamed “people’s inability to visit the city” for the disappointing figures at Edinburgh. The airport was closed eight times in two months due to snowy conditions.

In "the regions," a term that presumably alludes to East Midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, and the other airports outside London, occupancy was down by 2.5%, to 57.4%. “December proved that heavy snowfall can be both good and bad for hoteliers,” explained Robert Barnard.

Air Southwest is to terminate all services between Plymouth and Newquay airports, and London Gatwick from February 1 2011. The purple-and-white carrier cited a slump in the number of passengers flying the route, and an 18% hike in landing fees at Gatwick International, as the impetus for the cull.

Ironically, Air Southwest was created in 2003 to combat a shortfall in flights between London and the southwest, following the departure of UK flag-carrier, British Airways, from Devon and Cornwall. Southwest operated the Gatwick route uninterrupted until December 2010, when, under new owner, Eastern Airways, the carrier issued a ‘use it or lose it’ warning to local travellers, as sales plummeted. Eastern chief, Peter Davies, was frank - “if we don't get enough passengers, then we can't fly the route.” Air Southwest went on to make a loss of £3.94m at the end of 2010.

Since the beginning of January, local news website, This is Plymouth, has published increasingly desperate pleas from business leaders to Air Southwest, asking the airline to reconsider (or at least postpone) the termination of its Gatwick routes. The London link has “psychological importance” to overseas investors, says the newspaper. Though, perhaps even more distressing for local businesses, is the “inextricable” link between Air Southwest’s fortunes, and those of Plymouth Airport. The hub would likely face closure if the airline packed up its planes and disappeared.

Passengers who are expecting to fly with Air Southwest after February 1 will be ‘rescued’ by budget airline, Flybe, and train service, First Great Western (FGW). Flybe pledged to “assist Air Southwest in any way possible,” after the stricken Southwest approached the blue-and-white carrier for assistance. Equally, FGW will provide free, first class travel to ticketholders. The decision was made after Plymouth Council asked the rail service for a “response,” earlier this month.

Newquay Airport retains a route to Gatwick, courtesy of Flybe, but Plymouth will need to lure a new airline to its runway in order to remain operational. Unfortunately, the tiny hub can only support the type of Bombardier Dash aircraft used by Air Southwest and Flybe, among others, which severely limits the number of carriers that can be persuaded to fly from the Devon airport.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the recent cold snap of weather has had a devastating impact upon the travel industry, with airports across the UK forced to close for days on end, planes becoming the equivalent of giant ice blocks on runways inches thick with snow, and potential passengers kept housebound as roads turn into obstacle courses of abandoned cars. Combine this with the ongoing impact of the recession upon Brits' pockets and you can see why the travel industry may not have been experiencing the best of times over the past month or two.

However, the reality is somewhat different to this assumption, or at least it is at one major UK airport. Gatwick airport, in West Sussex (a region hit hard by the wintery conditions), actually recorded a significant rise in passenger numbers in November, despite the weather that seemed to bring the country to a complete standstill.

2.12 million passengers passed through the airport last month, a figure which represented a 2.7% increase on the figure for the same month last year. Bosses at the airport believe, understandably, that had it not been for the snow and ice problems that wreaked havoc with many people's travel plans, the passenger increase could have been as high as 3.7%.

Gatwick's ability to beat the cold snap and record such an impressive increase with regards to passenger numbers has relied in large part upon significant growth from easyJet, the airport's largest customer, new services launched by budget airline Ryanair, as well as new long-haul routes added to British Airways' portfolio.

Parking fees are an expense that many travellers would prefer to avoid, but as holidaymakers may have to drive tens, or even hundreds, of miles to find that perfect flight to the Czech Republic, the reality is that more and more people are forking out for airport parking spaces.

Fortunately, the cost of spaces at many UK airports has been falling. Short-stay parking at Manchester Airport, for example, fell from £45 for eight days in November 2009, to £29 during the same period this year. Of course, there is always an exception to the rule, and Gatwick Airport’s skyrocketing prices certainly qualify.

Essential Travel, a web-based holiday company, discovered that the cost of a parking space at Gatwick Airport has risen 67% since the hub was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners in 2009.

“This is surprising,” said Steve Smith, chief at Essential. “(Gatwick) was sold a year ago to break the British Airports Authority’s monopoly and offer customers better services and cheaper prices."

The cost of a seven-day stop in Gatwick’s long-stay car parks comes in at £75.20, up from £44.80 in December 2009. To put those figures into context, the difference in price (£30.40) would pay for an easyJet ticket from Gatwick to Basel in Switzerland, Grenoble in France, or Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

Bosses at Gatwick say that prices were increased by 35% in July to deter non-passengers from taking up valuable spaces, but that charges were kept in line with those at Heathrow and Luton airports. Pre-booking, says Gatwick, can still net customers discounts of up to 20% if spaces are booked several weeks in advance.

Steve Smith warned customers to ‘shop around’ before settling on official parking options, as many airports often have one or more accredited car parks in the local area.

Air Berlin, the second largest airline in Germany, and the newest member of the Oneworld alliance, is to move two of its five Stansted routes to Gatwick Airport at the beginning of 2011. The routes, London to Hannover and London to Nuremburg, both in Germany, will be a considerable boost to Gatwick’s mid-winter schedules.

The switch, which seems arbitrary at first glance, will bring Air Berlin closer to fellow Oneworld member, British Airways, allowing the two carriers to cooperate under a ‘codesharing’ agreement, the process by which a group of airlines expands their list of destinations by selling tickets on each other’s planes.

Gatwick will become the only hub in London to offer a flight to Nuremburg when Air Berlin arrives on February 7 next year, and one of three airports to provide flights to Hannover from the capital, alongside Stansted (Germanwings) and Heathrow (BMI).

Air Berlin is the second airline to move at least some of its operations from Stansted to Gatwick in just over a year, after Scandinavian airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle (or simply, Norwegian) escaped from the Essex hub in 2009. The airline cited better access to public transport at Gatwick as the impetus for the move.

Bosses at the Crawley hub expect the arrival of Air Berlin to attract around 365,000 new passengers to the airport. Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s CEO, said of the recent news, “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Air Berlin to Gatwick. This is the first step in a long-term relationship with the airline.”

Wingate intimated that the German carrier could introduce flights to destinations that are currently inaccessible from London, and help airport leaders achieve their collective dream of 20% growth in passenger numbers by 2018.

Marrakech, close to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, North Africa, is the latest addition to British Airways’ (BA) list of destinations from Gatwick Airport. The route, which the carrier is touting as a “real alternative” to flying with budget airline, easyJet, will begin operating on March 27 2011.

Despite the ongoing threat of strike action over the Christmas period, BA appears to be doing remarkably well, posting a half-year profit of £158m on October 29. The announcement, as the BBC News website noted, represented the first time that the flag-carrier had been in the black for two years.

The airline has begun restructuring its global operations, putting on extra flights to the Caribbean, adding a brand new route to Japan, and allowing a subsidiary firm, BA CityFlyer, to expand at London City Airport. However, the premium carrier continues to face strong competition from budget airlines, such as Ryanair and Flybe.

BA’s flight to Marrakech will be a thrice-weekly service, costing in the region of £79.70, including taxes, free refreshments and generous baggage allowances. The price, though reasonable for a BA flight, is unlikely to snatch holidaymakers away from easyJet, which charges £52.89, all in, for the same journey.

Richard Tams, a representative for BA, said that the route was aimed at the “discerning traveller,” which, combined with the higher price, likely indicates that the airline wants to attract executives who shudder at the thought of travelling budget - BA’s usual clientele, in other words.
“Unlike the low cost carriers, we offer fantastic all-inclusive fares with no stealth extras,” Richard said.

The Moroccan National Tourist Office, headed by Hamid Addou, said that the country was “delighted” with BA’s return to North Africa. The airline previously abandoned a London-Marrakech route in 2008, when GB Airways, a franchise of BA, was bought by the airline’s latest rival, easyJet.

EU approval has been granted for a new X-Ray airport scanner that is sophisticated enough to tell the difference between water and liquid explosives. The machine, which has been both researched and developed in Britain, could soon be set for EU-wide usage, leaving airport passengers once again free to take water bottles on flights.

Whilst this particular ban would not be able to be rescinded until 2013, the news would still surely come as welcome relief to both frequent flyers and those who only go on flights once or twice a year to reach holiday destinations. The current ban sees anyone travelling on planes departing from the UK unable to carry water brought from outside the airport on to planes, often leaving travellers having to pay extortionate prices in order to buy bottles of water after airport security.

A spokesperson from Kromek, the company that has created the device, stated that the machine was a reliable way of identifying any potential threats to flights because “bottles and containers are individually put in machines and scanned. If there is anything dangerous in them the machine will pick it up and there will be an alarm”.

The new technology is far more sensitive than that used by the X-ray machines that are currently in use and in fact makes use of a different wavelength of X-ray, which allows it to distinguish between a far greater range of materials, in the process allowing it to perceive precisely what is in a given container. Furthermore, the machine is capable of reading the bar code on a bottle of drink, allowing it to match the contents against a database to see if the bottle has been tampered with.

Flag-carrying airline, British Airways (BA), is to axe a flight between London and Varna in Bulgaria.

The route, which operates via the Hungarian capital, Budapest, has “proved unprofitable,” according to BA’s boss in the Balkans, Emil Delibashev, and the decision to cancel all future flights to Varna was “purely commercial.” BA has been flying to Varna, the largest seaside resort on the Black Sea, for the past four years. However, the carrier’s commitment to the city has been slowly reduced, from four flights a week in 2006, to just two weekly trips in 2010.

Passengers who had been hoping to travel to the popular ‘sun and sea’ destination this winter will now have the option of catching a BA flight from Gatwick to Budapest, and then hopping on a Malév Hungarian Airlines flight to Varna.

News of the cancellation should not come as a surprise to anybody who has been keeping an eye on BA’s affairs over the past few months. BA committed itself to a restructuring operation in October, increasing the number of flights to the Caribbean from Gatwick, and adding a new route from Heathrow to Haneda Airport in Tokyo. BA has also downsized its operations in Orlando, Florida.

The airline’s monumental battle with cabin crew union, Unite, is likely the impetus for BA’s enthusiastic reshuffling, as months of industrial action will have blown a hole in the carrier’s piggy bank, forcing bosses to pinch pennies wherever possible.

Expanding into new markets, whilst simultaneously cutting back on unpopular destinations, should help the premium airline shore up its finances over the difficult winter season, unless heavy snow and fog plays havoc with the aviation industry, as it did in winter 2009/10.

Flights between all London airports and the cities of Izmir and Antalya in Turkey have also been cancelled by BA.

Most people would like to believe that their bathroom scales are broken, and that the pounds they've piled on over the weekend are a distortion created by misaligned cogs and rusty springs. However, few people would feel the same way if they were charged for every errant kilo that appears between their big toes on a Monday morning.

According to Trading Standards, 75 of a total 330 weighing scales at Gatwick Airport were inaccurate or broken for up to three years, resulting in “millions” of passengers being overcharged for their luggage.

The investigation, which is the second of its kind since 2008, was launched after a traveller complained that the scales used to weigh her luggage displayed 5kg even when there was no weight on the machine. She was informed by airport staff that her suitcase was 3kg over the 20kg limit, despite an actual weight of 18kg.

Travel magazine, Which? Holiday, was unimpressed with the news – “If airlines are going to charge then they have a responsibility to ensure their scales are correct. Excess baggage charges can add a significant amount of money to the cost of a holiday.”

In a related investigation, Trading Standards polled 200 holidaymakers who had recently flown from Gatwick, and found that 8% of them were concerned about overcharging at the West Sussex airport. However, as weighing scales are managed by baggage handling firms such as Servisair, which are in turn hired by airlines, culpability lay with particular companies, rather than Gatwick’s management, Global Infrastructure Partners.

A similar investigation in 2008 revealed an almost identical problem, with 62 of 321 scales (around 1 in 5) having faults. “One airline in particular,” the Telegraph reported, had problems with more than half of its weighing machines.
If that particular airline had been easyJet or UK flag-carrier, British Airways, the affected passengers could have been charged £10 and £30, respectively, for every kilo of excess weight that they were carrying.

Gatwick Airport handles around 64m people every year, making it the second largest airport in the UK, behind London Heathrow.

UK flag-carrier British Airways (BA) is to restructure a number of its routes out of Gatwick Airport from summer 2011.

The move, which will almost exclusively affect Caribbean destinations, will result in extra flights to popular sunspots, including Barbados in the Lesser Antilles, Cancún in Mexico and the island of St. Lucia.

Not to be outdone, Olympic Air, the largest airline in Greece, has also unveiled a new route out of Gatwick.

The Mediterranean carrier will begin flying from the Crawley hub to Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, from October 31 2010. Currently priced at £27 for a one-way journey, the route will operate five times a week.

BA’s changes are a little less straightforward. The airline will add two flights onto its popular Gatwick-Barbados route, up from 10 weekly journeys to 12, whilst BA’s commitment to Antigua in the West Indies will be boosted with one extra flight per week to a total of six.

Other changes by BA include two extra weekly flights to St. Lucia, transforming the route into a daily service, and an additional flight on a brand new trip to Cancún, due to begin in November 2010.

BA’s Gatwick-Florida route will lose two of its flights, dropping from nine weekly trips to seven.

The reason for BA’s dramatic restructuring operation is not clear, but the airline’s decision to focus on existing routes suggests that the strike-hit airline is trying to increase its profitability on a shoestring, ahead of a potential cabin crew strike over the Christmas holidays.

Unite, the union behind the on-going industrial action, claims that future action is “inevitable.”

Gatwick Airport could stand on an “equal footing” with Heathrow Airport, if a plan to increase traffic at the Crawley hub is successful.

Nick Dunn, finance chief at Gatwick, intimated that an ongoing redevelopment plan at the airport, costing in the region of £1bn, could help boost passenger numbers by 40%, from a projected 32m in 2010, to 45m in 2013.

Yet, the hike in travellers, while enormous, would still be insufficient to challenge Heathrow’s dominance of UK aviation. The London airport attracted 66m people in 2009, almost twice the number of holidaymakers that flew from Gatwick during the same period. The transport hub also enjoyed its busiest September ever in 2010, helping 6.2m people reach their destination, up 7.6% on last year.

However, with £1bn to spend on redevelopments, Gatwick owner, Global Infrastructure Partners, does have a clear lead over the British Airports Authority (BAA), the current owner of Heathrow Airport. The BAA is still sulking over the cancellation of Heathrow’s third runway, and with no other developments in the pipeline, a number of airlines have voiced concerns about the future of the UK’s largest hub.

Ryanair, in particular, has threatened to take its business abroad if the Coalition government continues to place limits on the expansion of UK airports.

Back at Gatwick, Nick Dunn has no delusions of grandeur, noting that Heathrow will “always be the major London airport.” Nick said that there is a “competitive dynamic” in the capital – “we see it and we are embracing it."

The Daily Mail newspaper claims that Gatwick’s success over its neighbour could be further assured if the hub can pay for its expansion without spending more than its initial £1bn investment.

In such a situation, the Civil Aviation Authority will allow Gatwick to charge lower fees to resident carriers, making it a magnet for world airlines on a budget.

The airport’s £1bn expansion plans include a redesign of the North Terminal, and an increase in the number of trains that travel to the Crawley hub. Gatwick’s monorail system, which links the North and South terminals, was also upgraded earlier this year.

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the current owner of the UK’s second-largest airport, Gatwick International, is mulling over the sale of a fourth minority holding in the Crawley hub, following earlier deals with the South Korean National Pension Service (NPS), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and US firm Calpers.

If the infrastructure fund is successful in its negotiations with its ‘outside investor’, to quote news agency Reuters, a 9-12% stake in Gatwick could be sold before the end of 2010, possibly to another pension or investment fund.

However, GIP cannot sell any more than 9% if it wishes to retain majority control over the airport.

The Sunday Telegraph, the newspaper that exposed GIP’s plan, claims that “well-placed” sources, perhaps even employees at Gatwick, brought the deal to the paper’s attention earlier this week. No official news has been squeezed out of GIP yet, as the infrastructure firm declined interview requests.

Previous sales of Gatwick’s assets offloaded 12% (NPS), 15% (ADIA) and 12.7% (Calpers) to investors respectively.

Much of the information regarding the sale is conjecture, but the available figures indicate that a 9% stake in Gatwick would sell for £75m. In comparison, the ADIA paid £125m for its share of the West Sussex airport, whilst South Korea’s NPS forked out £100m for a 12% stake. Calpers invested £98m in June 2010.

The Sunday Telegraph’s predictions regarding the identity of Gatwick’s latest investor are not particularly helpful, with “global institutional investment group” and “sovereign wealth fund” topping the list of potential suitors. However, it seems likely that the buyer will be from Asia or the Middle East.

Whether the sale goes through as planned or not, the infrastructure fund, which has a £3.58bn piggy bank, is trying to raise £3-£4bn for an as-yet-unknown project.

As GIP currently owns a variety of industrial enterprises, from airports to liquid storage and gas pipelines, it’s a safe bet that the fund will plough any new monies into a similar project, perhaps even another UK airport.

British airline Monarch, one of the oldest carriers in the country, is to expand its Gatwick base to include a route to Lamezia Terme Airport in Calabria, Italy.

Lamezia Terme is in the far southwest of Italy, located in the ‘toe’ of the boot-shaped country.

The city is famed for its many forts and churches, such as the cubic watchtower, the Bastion of the Knights of Malta, and the ruins of the Santa Maria di Corazzo Monastery, one of the most powerful Cistercian abbeys in Calabria during the 1st century AD.

Lamezia’s proximity to the island of Sicily and the popular Sila National Park, a “stunning high-level plain,” to quote a press release on Monarch’s website, helps it stand out as a region of contrasts, from the peaceful plateaus at Sila to the lava fields on Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe.

The city's unique location, close to several hundred miles of coastline, makes it ideal for sun seekers and culture hounds alike.

Monarch’s new route will operate every Saturday from April 2011, costing in the region of £219 for a return trip. Tickets are already available for booking

The veteran airline cited “an increase in demand” for flights to Calabria as the impetus for the move, and noted that strong sales of the Gatwick-Lemezia route could result in the addition of routes to Calabria from other UK airports.

Monarch’s Managing Director, Tim Jeans, said that the airline is “delighted” to be able to expand at Gatwick.

The carrier was founded in June 1967, and is one of only a handful of seasoned airlines in the country to have kept its birth name throughout its operational history.

We may all love to moan about Ryanair, with its plans to charge for using the on-board toilets and its hefty charges for checked-in baggage, on-board food and almost everything else you can think of. But recently the budget airline has been attracting some good press coverage.

With its €69 rescue fare for stranded passengers affected by the collapse of Kiss Flights and its popular weekend seat sale with flights going for just a few euros, for once Michael O’Leary has been attracting attention for the right reasons.

Now Ryanair has good news for passengers living in the south east who choose to fly from Gatwick. The airline is to introduce four new routes and will increase the frequency of its service to Norway’s Oslo Rygge.

The new routes are destined for Italy (Bologna and Milan Bergamo) and Portugal (Faro and Porto) and will start on 31 Oct. The increased service to Oslo Rygge means that there will now be 10 flights to Norway’s capital from Gatwick instead of the current seven.

To celebrate the new routes, seats went on sale last week at a bargain £8 for midweek flights in Sept. It was not just bargains on the new routes that were up for grabs but also to many of the other 500 European destinations served by Ryanair, 500,000 tickets in all.

For those who missed out, regular one-way prices for the new destinations are as follows: Porto £17.99, Faro £19.99, Bologna £24.99 and Milan Bergamo £24.99. For flights to Oslo Rygge prices start at just £14.99. Prices include taxes and come with a no-fuel surcharge guarantee.

Despite enjoying sustained financial success, Easyjet has been forced to re-evaluate its staffing policy after Gatwick airport released data which suggested that in June, fewer than 50% of the airline's flights took off on time. With Air Zimbabwe managing to achieve 50% punctual departures during the same time, Easyjet is fully aware that it must improve its service whilst maintaining its no frills approach if it is to continue to lead the way for budget airlines.

With the figures suggesting that it is the company, rather than anything else, that is to blame, Easyjet have responded by suggesting that strikes in Europe have affected their performance, with a spokesperson for Easyjet noting that, “There have been 40 strikes so far this year. We are disproportionately hit because most of our flights go over the affected airspace, late-arriving aircraft meant knock-on effects on the schedule.”

In spite of this argument, Easyjet will be bucking the trend and looking to recruit more staff in order to improve its performance, with Easyjet’s staffing decision coming while BA continue to endure a long running dispute with the Unite union over job cuts. Should this attempt to improve its performance fail, the company may start to come under increasing pressure from other low cost airlines such as Ryanair, the likes of which will not hesitate to point out poor performance figures.

With this year being particularly difficult for all the major airlines with the ash cloud as well as the continuing recession affecting passenger numbers, Easyjet won’t be alone in hoping for a more successful year in 2011.

On Monday 9 August, Central American airline, Mexicana, announced that all flights from Gatwick to Mexico would be suspended, as the carrier battled to reduce its debts. Less than a day later, the majority of routes between London and Mexico City were reinstated, alongside flights to the Mexican capital from Madrid, Spain.

The carrier has warned that 18 routes will be “reduced to a minimum,” but employees remain “determined to make an effort out of concern for passengers.”

Mexicana’s troubles are different from those affecting UK airlines, such as the Air Passenger Duty and the Volcanic Ash Crisis, the name of which surely deserves capitalisation by now: Mexicana was hit by the swine flu outbreak that swept through Latin America in 2009, accruing debts of £628m as travellers avoided the region.

The carrier had put away £500m for a rainy day, but employees’ high wages meant that Mexicana’s savings were quickly absorbed by operating costs. The airline claims that its pilots earn 50% more than US pilots, and flight crews take home salaries that are 32% higher than the US average.

Ordinarily, the revival of popular routes indicates that an airline has found a way to deal with its demons, but Mexicana’s renewed commitment to Gatwick and Madrid appears to be an attempt to die gracefully. The airline’s website intimated that workers' unions had refused to agree to its cost-cutting plans, which, presumably, would have involved mass redundancies.

The unions’ decision begs the question, why, when the collapse of Mexicana is almost assured, are the unions refusing to acquiesce to the carrier’s consolidation plans? The reason may never be made plain, but job losses may be the lesser of two evils for the airline, which recently categorised its business as “no longer sustainable.”

Gatwick’s route to Mexico opened in October 2008, and was Mexicana’s first European, and first Trans-Atlantic, flight. The airline has not commented on how long its Gatwick-Mexico City connection will last, but concerned passengers are urged to contact the carrier on 0808 101 7600.

Gatwick Airport has stepped into the digital age with its second website design in as many months, and a new initiative that encourages travellers to ‘tweet’ their concerns to the @gatwick_airport Twitter address.

The scheme is a pilot (no pun intended), and part of the airport’s £1bn renovation plans, which will see the Sussex hub transformed over the next few years.

Gatwick’s Twitter address will be advertised around the airport, with the slogan, ‘are you on Twitter? Get in touch, and let us know about your experience at Gatwick today.’

Bosses claim that its new social networking initiative will provide customers with a more ‘human and personal’ experience, and allow service staff to respond to complaints ‘there and then.’

A quick glance at the @gatwick_airport page reveals that staff are answering questions regarding a number of issues, including directions to the airport, security, and future expansion plans.

The website is also encouraging frequent flyers to register with its IRIS rapid arrivals system, which scans the unique patterns in travellers’ eyes.

Complaints are common, though rarely more serious than a broken air conditioning unit, or a particularly miserable EasyJet team. The airport has pledged to monitor the web page 24hrs a day, referring to it as a ‘response tool.’

A recent press release on Gatwick’s website suggests that officials are pursuing greater integration with social networks, possibly extending to Facebook or even smartphone applications in the future.

Of course, if the Crawley hub’s experiment with Twitter is a failure, then bosses may have to look at other ways to address customer concerns.

Holidaymakers who fly from Gatwick will be celebrating the recent news from Monarch Airlines regarding extra flights from the Sussex airport.

On July 18, a brand new route to Palma in Majorca started up, and soon services to Sharm el Sheikh are due to be increased as a result of customer demand. Monarch did not previously offer flights from Gatwick to Palma although 20 flights a week to Majorca were on offer from the airline from Birmingham, Manchester and Luton. The new Gatwick service will operate three times a week.

Thursday flights to Sharm el Sheikh, one of Egypt’s most popular Red Sea destinations, start on Sept 9 and will run for seven weeks, in addition to the five Gatwick flights a week which are already available from Monarch to the resort.

It is also good news for passengers flying out of Manchester. An extra service to Gibraltar is being offered every Sunday from Sept 12 to Oct 31 to supplement the 10 flights which already operate to the destination from Manchester and Luton.

A new terminal at Gibraltar airport is to open soon, which is more good news for passengers: the airport is used not only by visitors to the British overseas territory but also by travellers to southern Spain.

Bookings for all three destinations can be made online and prices start at just £42 for a one-way ticket (inclusive of all taxes) or £68 return.

Monarch operates both charter and scheduled flights to 50 destinations and carries over 6.5 million passengers each year.

Gatwick’s new monorail service has been launched, two months ahead of schedule. The airport’s owner, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has called the shuttle’s launch, ‘the first major milestone’ in the airport’s £1bn renovation.

The original shuttle was decommissioned in September 2009 to allow for the replacement of two ancient trains, and replaced with a temporary bus service. Since then, every inch of the monorail’s track has been refurbished, and both terminal stations have been given a modern facelift.

James van Hoften, a former astronaut, was at the monorail’s launch party. Mr. Hoften clocked up more than 300 space hours in his seven-year NASA career, participating in missions with the Discovery and Challenger space shuttles in the early eighties.

The astronaut echoed GIP’s sentiments by saying – ‘the monorail is one small step in our plan to make Gatwick a great airport that passengers love to use.’

Gatwick's new trains, which were hauled into place earlier this year, are fitted with CCTV cameras and advanced ‘sensory technology,’ allowing the train to count the number of people that are waiting for its arrival.

The carriages also have more seats than their predecessors did, and provide greater accessibility to disabled travellers.

GIP wants to challenge Heathrow and Stansted for a greater share of London’s travellers. The firm has already rebranded the airport in its own image, stripping the British Airport Authority’s colours from its website in June, and dropping the word ‘London’ from its name.

The investment fund has also bought into London City Airport, and the waste management company, Biffa.

Gatwick Airport owner, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), has unveiled a £1bn plan to revamp the Crawley hub. The investment fund claims that almost every aspect of Gatwick’s operation will be redeveloped over the next two years, from branding to entrance forecourts and departure lounges.

A recent press release on Gatwick’s website suggests that the overhaul will begin with the unveiling of a new airport shuttle in July. The shuttle, which has been on ice since an older model was decommissioned in September, cost £45m to replace, and should decrease travel times between the airport’s terminals.

Self-service machines at security desks, a variety of new shops, and an expansion to the hub’s north terminal make up the majority of the changes, but the GIP has a number of tiny projects and ‘gestures’ planned for the future, such as a renewed commitment to customer service. The airport will also drop the word ‘London’ from its name.

Gatwick bosses have embraced a new initiative by the coalition government, which will see the airport focus on service rather than the size of its runways. The South East Airports Task Force will attempt to make the three London airports more efficient, reducing queuing times and improving the reliability of aircraft.

Stewart Wingate, chief at Gatwick airport, called the GIP’s investment a ‘milestone’, adding ‘the airport has long been recognised as a friendly and enjoyable place to travel. It’s by building on these qualities and investing in new facilities that the airport will go from strength to strength.’

Gatwick is also set to benefit from a new flight to Cancun, Mexico, courtesy of UK flag-carrier, British Airways. The route, which begins on the 3 November 2010, will operate twice a week, flying direct to the resort. EasyJet has also given Gatwick a boost, by unveiling a new flight to Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Environment Agency has begun the construction of a £15m flood defence system in an effort to protect Gatwick Airport from ‘major disruption’.

The Sussex airport was inundated with flood waters in 2000 when as the nearby River Mole burst its banks, forcing the closure of a road running beneath the hub’s south terminal.

Flooding is a relatively rare occurrence at UK airports, and bosses prefer to spend their cash on battling terrorists or extending runways into the surrounding countryside. Problems can arise very quickly, however, as torrential rain can cause localised flooding in areas without any rivers or streams.

Crawley was flooded in 1968 and 2000, but the Environment Agency didn’t take much notice until 2008, when a care home for the elderly had to be evacuated. 47people, including a 101-year-old woman, were displaced during the night.

The agency, which is run by the government, has since created the Upper Mole Flood Alleviation Scheme to reduce the threat of flooding in the West Sussex region. A dam on Tilgate Lake will have its capacity increased and three ‘flood reservoirs’ will be created in the Crawley area.

Contractors are bidding to have the scheme completed within the next three years. Ian Tomes, risk manager at the Environment Agency, called the scheme "vital", stating that flooding is "very destructive and could cause major disruption to the whole region", making it "vital we do everything we can to reduce the risk".

In related news, Global Infrastructure Partners’ (GIP) takeover of Gatwick appears to be finally complete after the firm redesigned the airport’s website. GIP has ditched the colours of former owner BAA and branded the site in its trademark blue and white, similar to the investment fund’s own homepage.

A series of new rules will allow aircraft to fly through double the volume of volcanic ash, equivalent to ‘two grains of sand in a bathtub.’ The safe maximum has been changed from 0.002 to 0.004 grams per cubic metre – still a tiny figure, but sufficient to prevent 94% of all ash-related delays.

The change was ‘encouraged’ by airline bosses, who have been vocal critics of the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) trigger-happy attitude to airspace closures since the eruption of Eyjafjoll began in mid-April. The problem was compounded last week, when the CAA closed UK airspace for an ash cloud that didn't exist.

British Airways boss, Willie Walsh, called the flight bans a ‘gross overreaction to a very minor risk,’ whilst Richard Branson was concerned that the number of flight cancellations had got ‘beyond a joke.’ Ryanair founder, Michael O’Leary also criticised the CAA’s ‘outdated, inappropriate, and imaginary’ ash tracking models.

Leeds-based airline, Flybe, became the first carrier to adopt the CAA’s new rules, which require all aeroplanes to have ash-tolerant engines, or at least, permission to fly from their engine manufacturer. Flybe bosses predict that just 21 flights would have been cancelled last month if the new rules had been implemented sooner, rather than 380.

Iceland’s Met Office released a statement on Monday claiming that Eyjafjoll was now venting steam rather than ash. The news looks promising for aviation bosses, but experts have warned that several other volcanoes near Eyjafjoll could be stirring.

Thor Thordarson, a volcanologist at Edinburgh University, predicts that up to four Icelandic volcanoes could erupt within the next few years – Grimsvotn, whose 1996 eruption destroyed Iceland’s main ring road, Hekla and Askja volcanoes, and Eyjafjoll’s larger neighbour, Katla.

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In 1990, Saddam Hussein stole ten planes from Kuwait as part of an on-going invasion of the oil-rich emirate. It might not seem like something that would affect the UK, but the dead dictator’s thieving ways precipitated the longest court case in British history, a legal battle that has yet to end even twenty years later.

Kuwait Airways, the erstwhile owner of the missing aeroplanes, has demanded compensation of £780m from the High Court, or a gift of ten airliners from the Iraqi government. The troubled republic is prepared to do ‘absolutely nothing’ to satisfy Kuwait’s demands, however, according to Chris Gooding, a London solicitor.

The nature of the case is long-winded and confusing, but associates of Kuwait Airways, namely British lawyers, are allowed to take steps to recoup the emirate’s losses on foreign soil. So, when Iraqi Airways announced a new route from Baghdad to Gatwick Airport, Kuwait’s lawyers descended on the Sussex hub, determined to capture any plane that landed there.

At the end of April, the first Baghdad-London flight in two decades met with disaster, after the chief executive of Iraqi Airways, Kifah Hassan, was detained on the Gatwick apron. Mr. Hassan will now remain in the UK until his airline produces an exhaustive list of its planes, including details of how they were acquired.

Iraq has tried to establish a permanent air link with British airports on many occasions, but with the exception of an Aer Olympic route from Birmingham, the country's efforts have been thwarted at every turn.

A spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Transportation was disgusted with the developments, ‘Kuwait insists on harassing and embarrassing Iraqis whenever they attempt to open a window to the outside world.’

The fate of the Gatwick-Baghdad service is unknown. The plane that was carrying Mr. Hassan, an airliner on loan from a Swedish aviation firm, has been returned to its original owner.

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In the months leading up to March 2010, Gatwick Airport had its whole business model turned upside down by its new owners, Global Infrastructure Partners. A few redundancies later, and the Crawley hub appears born-anew, surviving the recent cabin-crew strike with few disruptions, and securing a bumper crop of new flights.

Budget airline, Flybe, and everybody’s favourite flag-carrier, British Airways (BA), have each added one new destination to their Gatwick schedules. Flybe will begin offering a brand new route to Nantes, France, on the 15th July, whereas BA is increasing its commitment to the Channel Island of Jersey from the 26th April.

Flybe is one of the largest providers of Anglo-French routes in Europe, currently offering 370 flights to and from the French mainland. The airline’s new Nantes route will operate six times a week from Gatwick, and help to bolster Flybe’s ‘enviable reputation for serving France,’ to quote the airline’s commercial officer, Mike Rutter.

British Airways is well known for its transatlantic routes, but not often associated with island airports and tiny coastal resorts. The carrier now boasts an impressive 41 weekly flights to Jersey, however, departing every morning except Sunday. BA will be eager to reclaim some of the passengers it lost during last month’s spat with workers' union, Unite.

A one-way ticket to Jersey costs between £50 and £70 with British Airways, depending on the date of departure. Flybe’s route to Nantes is slightly less expensive, at £40 each way. Both routes can be booked online at the two airlines' respective websites.

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As many of us have discovered to our cost, volcanic ash, such as that spewed from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull volcano, makes conditions too dangerous for flying. But what exactly are the dangers and have there been problems in the past which justify the blanket ban on air traffic?

The main risk is that an accumulation of volcanic ash particles in a jet engine can cause the engine to become clogged with molten glass resulting in an eventual shut down of the engines. The characteristics of the dust mean that when it reaches a very high temperature it will melt. Modern jet engines operate at a higher temperature (2000 degrees C) than the melting point of the dust, meaning that the system required to keep the engine cool enough to operate would melt as, in turn, would the engine.

The Finnish Air Force flew several fighter jets over Northern Finland last Thurs prior to air space being closed and reported substantial damage to engines resulting from the ingestion of volcanic ash.

In 1982, after the eruption of an Indonesian volcano, a BA plane got into trouble near Java. The pilot Eric Moody explained that all engines were lost for around 15 mins and the plane plummeted from 37,000 feet to 12,000 feet. Eventually his repeated attempts to restart the engines worked for one engine and he was able to avoid ditching the 747. A Singapore Airlines plane had a similar experience as a result of the same volcano and in 1989 a KLM plane flew into problems in Alaska following a volcanic eruption.

As a direct result of Mr Moody’s experience in 1982 the emergency protocols were changed for pilots.

40-year old Lithuanian man was prevented from crossing the border at Gatwick Airport earlier this month after a hi-tech security scanner identified him as a convicted drug smuggler. The device, which is called eBorders, is capable of checking the passport of a traveller against a criminal and terrorist ‘watch list’, helping security officials capture crooks before they enter the country.

The man, who had just arrived from the city of Vilnius in south-eastern Lithuania, held a previous conviction for a cocaine trafficking offence in 1998. He was eventually deported from the UK four years later. The government made sweeping changes to airport security over the next eight years, and in 2009 his details were transferred to the National Border Targeting Centre (NBTC).

Despite its relatively young age, the NBTC is an integral part of eBorders, checking more than 250 million passenger movements per year. The information collected by eBorders is quickly sent to the NBTC to be filtered. Innocent citizens are allowed to pass through security freely, but villains are immediately apprehended by border officials.

The eBorders system has helped police catch 5,400 dangerous criminals since it was introduced.

Gatwick boss Nick Crouch was impressed with eBorders. He said the fact that they could identify a convicted drug smuggler before he could enter the country "clearly demonstrates the value of eBorders". He added that it would help them to "capture known criminals, while gathering evidence against smugglers and people traffickers". The eBorders device also incorporates facial recognition software.

The Home Office does not expect eBorders to become a cornerstone of airport security until 2014.

The new owner of Gatwick Airport has certainly made an impression in the few months since it took over.

Since its arrival in October 2009, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has sold a 12% stake in the airport to a Korean pension fund, promised a billion pounds for upgrades and redevelopments, and now, just five months later, has told 120 staff members to get ready for the dole queue.

GIP, which also owns 75% of London City Airport, has moved to distance itself from the management style used by BAA (British Airports Authority), which means that a period of ‘hiring and firing’ is inevitable. The firm has already welcomed a new managing director, a planning officer and an operating boss into the fray – all at the expense of the existing BAA staff.

Whilst GIP hopes to keep the number of redundancies to a minimum, the investment fund has told everybody in Gatwick’s planning and commercial divisions to reapply for their jobs or risk losing them altogether. Bosses have somehow managed to blame BAA for the cull, citing ‘years of underinvestment’ by the aviation giant, forcing a complete overhaul of most Gatwick operations.

Airport chief Stewart Wingate tried to put a pleasant spin on the job cuts, claiming that the restructuring was announced "to give us the opportunity to bring in new and fresh people".

GIP wants to speed up security checks at the Sussex airport, whilst expanding the North Terminal to handle an extra 4 million travellers a year. Gatwick will also unveil a £45 million refit of its monorail service during the summer holiday season, where two hi-tech trains will be introduced.

A monorail linking Gatwick’s North and South terminals will reopen in July, just 10 months after it was closed for refurbishment. The £45 million refit is designed to slash the duration of journeys between the two buildings, and will introduce two new hi-tech trains.

In September 2009, airport bosses took an axe to Gatwick’s existing shuttle service and locked the carriages away for the final time. The cut was one of the last developments at Gatwick to take place under the rule of BAA (the British Airports Authority) before the airport was sold to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) at the end of the year.

On the day of their retirement, the old trains had travelled more than 2.5 million miles in their 20-year career, equivalent to five return trips to the Moon. In comparison, the replacement bus service has very little to boast about, save for the 20 minutes it adds to journey times.

Gatwick’s new trains have already been lifted onto their new home above the London tarmac, but the monorail is not expected to resume full operation until the summer season. In the meantime, the ‘intra-airport’ bus will continue to ferry passengers from one side of Gatwick to the other.

Airport chief, Ray Melee, was delighted with recent developments at the airport, saying that it was "fantastic news" and "testament to the hard work and skill of the teams involved.”

Gatwick plans to invest £1 billion in improvements over the coming year, almost two thirds of the total value of the airport.

A major pension fund wants to buy a 12% stake in Gatwick Airport, in a bid to increase the proliferation of its services across the globe.

South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) is one of the largest asset pools in the world, claiming funds in excess of £153bn.

The NPS opened a dialogue with Gatwick bosses in December last year, with a view to buying a portion of the airport at the beginning of 2010. The deal should be finalised later this week.

Gatwick was sold to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in October, as part of a government plan to dismantle the BAA’s monopoly over UK aviation.

The GIP spent £1.51bn purchasing the airport, with a further £1bn earmarked for terminal expansions and other developments. The firm has yet to commit to any costly projects, however.

On the 9th February, GIP announced that it had no plans to build a second runway at Gatwick, fearing an ‘uncertain’ planning application that could cost the company up to £200m, whether it succeeded or not.

The millions accrued from the involvement of Korea’s NPS in the airport may help the GIP free up finances for smaller schemes, such as advertising and security upgrades.

Last year, the NPS bought the Canary Wharf headquarters of HSBC for a fee in excess of £770m and a building in Australia for £380m. The pension fund has hinted at the acquisition of more UK businesses, as part of a plan to raise £200bn within the next four years.

Gatwick has not commented on the sale.

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Irish airline, Aer Lingus, has announced cutbacks at its Gatwick Airport hub, blaming flagging consumer demand for its decision.

Aer Lingus is the flag-carrier of the Republic of Ireland, and all fleet aeroplanes sport the green shamrock on their tails. The company has not enjoyed the best run of luck over the last few months, however.

The global recession, now just a speck in the middle-distance, forced Aer Lingus to renege on plans to base eight aircraft at Gatwick. Only five planes ever made it onto the apron, and now the airline wants to redistribute two of them to other, more profitable airports.

A number of flights will continue to operate as normal from the London airport: namely three routes to Ireland, and one to Spain, but plans to expand the £100m base at Gatwick have gone the way of the dodo.

Following an impressive £110m loss for the year ending April 2009, bosses have voiced concerns about operating profits, which are expected to be minimal for the current financial year. The continuing threat of a hostile Ryanair takeover has also done little for shareholder confidence.

Despite all that, Aer Lingus recorded higher than average passenger numbers in December 2009, helping company shares jump a full 9%, but with the winter season now in full swing, the airline is braced for a difficult start to the new year.

Aer Lingus now wants to shave £66m from employee wages and pensions, as efforts to reduce costs continue to take casualties. Voluntary redundancies are being welcomed.

Whilst terrified villagers spend their last few pennies on emergency supplies, fearing the end of the world in an explosion of snow and ice, Gatwick Airport is struggling to come to terms with a different kind of disaster – the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

On Tuesday, a powerful snowstorm blew in from Siberia, freezing cows in their tracks, and flooding the fields with fluffy snow. Factories were closed, grit trucks tipped over, and cars spent hours travelling just a few metres.

For large swathes of the country, there’s been no reprieve from the weather. Businesses remain closed, and most of the UK’s airports are still trying to offset the delays caused by several inches of snow.

Manchester and Liverpool airports, both of which were forced to close on Tuesday, have since managed to pry open the front doors and let planes take off and land, but Gatwick is still trying to dig itself out of the drifts.

Over 400 flights have been frozen since Tuesday. British Airways cancelled all outgoing flights on Wednesday, much to the dismay of its passengers, who spent the night on the floor at the London airport, whilst EasyJet axed seventy on Thursday morning.

Gatwick is currently operational, but passengers are being warned to expect frequent closures, as staff members try to de-ice the runway.

A statement on the official website reads – “There are significant disruptions to all flights arriving at Gatwick Airport. We are working hard to keep the runway clear, although the threat of more snow and ice remains.”

If you are travelling to a British airport today, or over the weekend, please contact your airline before leaving your house. The Times Online website is running a daily bulletin of all the problems affecting major airports. You can read it here.

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GIP (Global Infrastructure Partners), which recently bought Gatwick Airport, has now announced that it will be selling a stake in the company sometime next year. However, it is still planning to keep control of the airport following any sale that takes place.

Gatwick Airport was sold for £1.51 billion when the Competition Commission forced BAA to break up its dominance of the market. GIP has confirmed that the changes it will be making will include improving check-in times and enhancing the rail service to the airport. Michael McGhee, a partner at the company, said that the “focus is very much on the modernisation and improvement of Gatwick”.

GIP already has experience in the sector after buying London City Airport, which is popular with business flyers. It sold a 25% holding in the airport to Highstar Capital in New York, and so it is planning to follow the same course of action with Gatwick.

It will also be hoping to improve the service in the same way that it did at London City Airport. One of the main improvements at London City Airport has been the improvement in the punctuality of flights. McGhee said that although London City was a “different animal”, he confirmed that “a lot of the principles and processes we applied are pretty applicable at Gatwick”.

Bloomberg News quoted Airports Council International as stating that last year 34.2 million people travelled through Gatwick, making it the eighth busiest airport in Europe. The first was Heathrow with 67 million, which BAA are certain to keep hold of.

West Sussex County Council has put the brakes on a parking swindle, designed to con travellers out of their hard-earned cash.

Gatwick Secure Parking, a private enterprise owned by London restaurateur, Resat Gundogdu, sold fake parking spaces to unsuspecting tourists, wooing them with hyperbole and buzzwords – secure facilities, six-foot high fences and lockable gates.

A litany of complaints forced the local Trading Standards Office to intervene, but the company carried on trading. Further investigation revealed that the firm was running a very strange business indeed.

Council officers purchased their own parking space from Mr. Gundogdu, and left for the evening, assured that their car would be treated with the utmost care, wrapped in cotton wool and guarded by angry dragons.

However, it soon became clear that Gatwick Secure Parking was not providing the service that its website had promised. Rather than transporting customer vehicles to a secure location, valuable cars and motorbikes were being left in the general parking area, unattended.

Over three winter days, council officers returned to find their mileage identical to the previous evening. In November, Mr. Gundogdu pleaded guilty to fraud. He was handed a £836 fine, and sentenced to 140 hours community service, picking up leaves and planting flowers. West Sussex Council was suitably impressed with the verdict.

“This is another example of our trading standards officers' determination to protect the interests of consumers who live, work or visit our county”, council boss, Henry Smith, explained. The Gatwick Secure Parking website has since been shut down.

Mr. Gundogdu was also fined £24,000 for failing to uphold hygiene standards at a Crawley kebab and steak house.

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A major investment fund has bought Gatwick Airport for £1.51bn, ending the British Aviation Authority’s (BAA) forty-year monopoly on the London airports, and silencing the Competition Commission, who had urged the BAA to sell up.

Global Infrastructure Partnerships (GIP), an alliance between industrial kings, General Motors, and Credit Suisse, already claims ownership of London City Airport, but a second UK facility proved too tempting to resist.

The sale had been on the cards since 2008, but following the departure of all the major buyers, the BAA put the auction on hold. A buyer wouldn’t re-emerge until late 2009, just in time to staunch an estimated £12.5bn hole in the aviation firm’s wallet. Manchester Airports Group, the eponymous owners of Manchester Airport, recently pulled out of negotiations.

Pending EU approval, the sale will not be completed until Christmas, 2009. Three percent of the sale price (£55m) hinges on the future performance of Gatwick Airport, and the state of the GIP’s piggy bank.

Recent figures place the BAA’s share of London passengers at an impressive ninety percent, far outstripping that of rival operators. The BAA wants to use its newfound wealth to put a smile back on the bank manager’s face, and to clean up capacity issues at Heathrow Airport.

Colin Matthews, chief executive at the BAA, waved a tearful goodbye to the airport: “We wish Gatwick well for the future and are confident that the airport will flourish under new ownership. Today's announcement marks a new beginning for both Gatwick and the BAA.”

Gatwick was recently named the best airport at the Travel Bulletin Star Awards, an accolade that rewards pioneers of UK industry.

One of the runways at Gatwick was forced to close recently when a Cardiff-bound Flybe plane from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport had to make an emergency landing following a suspected technical fault spotted by the pilot.

According to one passenger, smoke began to gather near the roof of the cabin some twenty minutes before the plane landed at Gatwick. Passengers were not required to adopt the brace position on landing although emergency vehicles were in attendance. Passengers remained calm on the whole, although it was described by one as a “hair raising experience” and some expressed reluctance to get back on a plane to continue their journey to Wales. There were no reported injuries to any of the 46 passengers or 4 crew members and all were taken to a reception area for assistance.

It happened just after the start of the school summer holidays, a particularly busy period for Gatwick. Although the runway was only shut for around an hour and only eleven flights diverted it caused chaos for passengers affected. One man who had arrived at Gatwick to meet his partner off an inbound flight found himself caught up in the confusion. His partner’s flight was originally diverted to Bournemouth but was unable to land there and was eventually diverted to Luton.

Another passenger on a diverted flight could not believe his bad luck, having been travelling to Gatwick this February when the runway was forced to close due to a mysterious spillage of hydraulic fluid. On that occasion his flight was diverted to Stansted and with the severe weather conditions prevailing after the worst snowfalls in twenty years, his journey back to his home in Sussex had taken six hours.

With all the doom and gloom which the recession has brought to the aviation industry, it is refreshing to read a good news story for a change. Budget carrier, Easyjet, has recently announced that in sharp contrast to rival airlines it is in fact experiencing a boom in passenger numbers from Gatwick.

Of course, given the good value for money provided by the airline it should perhaps come as no surprise that travellers seeking to cut holiday costs are turning to the budget end of the market and forsaking the more traditional carriers such as BA.

Easyjet started operating out of Gatwick almost ten years ago with flights to Geneva and has gone from strength to strength, with the airport now being its biggest operating base, although the airline is still officially based at Luton. Passengers from Gatwick can now choose from over seventy destinations, including not only the more familiar European destinations but also ones in Egypt and Morocco.

This summer the airline expects to carry two million passengers and if you are due to fly with the airline in the next few days it could be your lucky day. Easyjet are celebrating their success by rewarding the millionth passenger to fly out of Gatwick in July with a free flight each month for a year. The lucky passenger will be identified at check-in at the airport.

When Easyjet started flying out of Gatwick they were carrying around 6,000 passengers a month. This figure has now rocketed to 40,000 per day at the height of the summer holiday season this year.

EasyJet has failed in its court battle over the increasing of fees for airlines at Gatwick Airport. The budget airline had taken the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) to the High Court over claims that the airport regulator’s recent agreement to raise the fees for using Gatwick was unlawful.

But the High Court has now thrown out the case, to the obvious pleasure of the CAA but to the dismay of EasyJet. Harry Bush from CAA said that he is “pleased with the outcome of the judicial review”, although EasyJet has been given the right to appeal.

EasyJet is frustrated that the High Court did not order a review of the fee hikes. The problem was all caused over the decision that the maximum fee per passenger using the airport was to be increased to £6.79. EasyJet has said that this will cost it an extra £46 million over the next five years, and it has also said that the charges are likely to be paid by passengers in the form of higher fares.

The CAA has claimed that the rises were necessary in order to make important improvements to Gatwick, but EasyJet has already announced that it will appeal the ruling. In a difficult time for the aviation industry, it said that “passengers must be protected with strong airport regulation.” And although it is great that the company is so concerned for the wellbeing of its customers, it is certain to be worried more about the hit that its profits will take if it becomes less competitive in an already competitive market.

British Airways has just announced that this winter it will be cutting back on the number of services that it currently offers from Gatwick Airport.

It is thought that the troubled airline, which has recently been hitting the headlines for asking staff to work for free, is finding itself under increasing pressure from the budget airlines when it comes to short-haul European flights.

Nine of its routes are going to be affected by the changes. There are five that will be switched to Heathrow Airport instead, and these are:

• Madrid
• Malaga
• Barcelona
• Gibraltar
• Pisa

On top of this, a further four routes are to be scrapped altogether. These four are:

• Krakow
• Palma
• Malta
• Alicante

BA has said that the decision has been made and that the changes will all come into effect from October 25 this year. On top of these nine major changes, there are also a number of other changes that passengers should be aware of that will take place this winter.

The flight that BA currently operates from Gatwick to Varna in Bulgaria is going to be cancelled in the winter, with flights only operating in the summer months. And on top of this, it has also scrapped next summer’s flights from Gatwick to Ibiza.

It is likely that many passengers are going to be affected by these changes. However, BA has already announced that full refunds will be available to anyone who has already booked their flight. Alternatively, BA is also offering them the chance to switch flights instead.

On the plus side, it will be increasing some of its flights from Heathrow as a result, with flights to Prague and Barcelona both increasing in frequency.

If you were in any doubt about the dire situation of the UK’s airline industry, you only have to look to British Airways for proof. The flagship airline of the country has just asked its employees to work for free to help keep the company afloat.

The airline lost a staggering £400 million last year. To try to keep itself going, it has now asked 400,000 staff to work for free for up to a month.

The boss of the company, Willie Walsh, has indicated that he will practice what he preaches by sacrificing his pay for a month. This will set him back £61,000 and he will therefore be giving up the most in actual value. However, his £740,000 salary means that he can probably afford to go a month without pay and not feel the pinch, whereas asking the luggage handlers and cabin crew to take a one-month cut is a different matter.

The reason it is doing so badly is due to two main reasons, which are the same reasons that other airlines are having such a tough time: the huge drop in passengers due to the recession, and the rise in oil prices witnessed last year.

In the BA newsletter, Mr Walsh said that they “face a fight for survival” and that how they fare will rely on “everyone contributing to changes”.

Opinion is divided over whether it is a good thing or not. It would save people from becoming redundant in such difficult times, but at the same time, any pay cut these days is going to hit many workers hard.

There has been concern ahead of BAA’s £900 million investment project at Gatwick Airport, which has led the AOC (Airline Operators Committee) to issue a complaint to the company, claiming that there is a chance the huge bill will have to be passed onto their customers in the form of higher fares.

Ryanair, EasyJet and British Airways, all members of the AOC, have sent a letter to BAA expressing their concern that now is not the right time to go ahead with the large-scale changes, due to the fact that passenger numbers are continuing to fall. Gatwick has seen passenger numbers drop considerably this year, falling by 12% since the beginning of 2009.

The airlines are reluctant to pass on the bill to their customers during this difficult economic climate, and they have suggested that the programme be scaled back and put off until after the airport has been sold.

The airlines spoke of an “unproven” case for the millions that would need to be pumped into the airport for new facilities over the next five years. They have clearly expressed that they want to put off the changes until the new owner of the airport is decided, who they feel may have cheaper plans.

The proposed improvements to Gatwick include a new aircraft pier in the North Terminal, costing £200 million, and a number of other expensive upgrades. However, according to the AOC the costs cannot be justified.

BAA counteracted the criticisms by saying that the airlines were all involved in the negotiation process, and had been aware of the costs that it would incur for a long time already.

The ongoing bidding process for Gatwick airport has taken a new turn with the bid of the Citigroup consortium (named the Lysander Gatwick Investment Group) being rejected by BAA.

BAA has announced that the bid was too low, but the Lysander Gatwick Investment Group has said that the decision is “bizarre in the extreme” as well as “extraordinary and puzzling”. The group said that its bid was the only one to provide a long-term commitment to the airport and to be fully funded.

However, on the statement that the consortium released, which made its frustration so clear, the group also indicated that it was still keen on pursuing its bid for the airport.

The size of the bid was reported to be between £1.3 and £1.4 billion. However, the bid was deemed too low by BAA which wants at least £1.5 billion for the airport.

Only two bids now remain in the running for the airport: MAG (The Manchester Airport Group), consisting of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and Borealis Infrastructure from Canada, and Global Infrastructure Partners (a joint venture between Credit Suisse Group and GE Infrastructure), which already owns London City Airport.

The Lysander group was thought by many to be the favourite, but now that it is out of the running MAG has taken the pole position and is now considered by some to be the favourite to take over Gatwick.

In separate news surrounding the bidding process, BAA has said that it is planning to appeal against the antitrust ruling which led to the decision to sell three of its airports in the first place. The move comes amid concerns by the company that the demand to divest its assets during a recession were not taken into account.

Gatwick airport has reported an increase in the number of air rage incidents which necessitated police action. Police had to board planes 58 times last year, up from 50 the year before, and when problems on the ground are taken into account it works out at around ten incidents per week in the first three months of the year.

Offences committed ranged from threatening and abusive behaviour to assault, and many were alcohol related. As a result, 52 people were arrested and a further 63 denied boarding. Nationwide the number of air rage incidents has increased fourfold in the last four years, although the number of serious incidents has actually decreased.

Police at Gatwick have enlisted the help of businesses at the airport, particularly those selling alcohol, and many promotions have been withdrawn in an attempt to ensure that passengers are not intoxicated before they even get on the plane.

Stress is cited as a major contributory factor: intrusive security procedures, flight delays, lack of legroom, and screaming children can make the most even tempered passenger fly off the handle.

BAA, the operator at Gatwick airport, was keen to play down the statistics, saying that 35 million passengers pass through the airport each year, and that only a very small number of passengers cause problems. It is also thought that as airlines become increasingly intolerant of disruptive passengers more cases are being reported to the police.

This March a passenger was jailed for eight months after a drunken air rage incident on a plane flying from Egypt to Cardiff.

In the wake of the outbreak of swine fever, travellers on flights from Mexico arriving back in the UK are being questioned by doctors about possible flu symptoms before being allowed off the plane.

According to one passenger who had flown to Gatwick from Cancun, passengers had been wondering whether there would be a screening procedure but at the end of the day all that happened was that a doctor came on board to ask whether anyone was feeling ill or suffering from diarrhoea.

The Foreign Office has now advised against all but essential travel to Mexico and so passengers are legally entitled to cancel or change their travel arrangements without financial penalty.

Seven airlines fly from the UK to Mexico and, even before the Foreign Office upgraded their advice, many were allowing passengers to change their travel dates, with British Airways also allowing travellers to change their destination without financial consequences.

Earlier this week the EU Health Commissioner advised against travel to America, something seen by many as an overreaction, but airlines are unlikely to show the same goodwill to anyone wishing to cancel or change their trip to the States.

As the virus spreads airlines may well introduce measures first taken because of the outbreak of SARS in 2003, which included screening passengers showing any symptoms at airports, prior to flying.

Government leaflets are to be sent to all UK households next week with advice on preventing infection and stocks of face masks for health workers increased. The reassuring news, however, is that anyone catching swine flu in the UK is likely to recover in a week.

This week has seen Easyjet start a legal battle in the High Court against the Civil Aviation Authority, the regulator of UK airports, over charges levied on the low-cost carrier to use Gatwick airport. Earlier this month the chief executive of Easyjet, Andy Harrison, decried the “barmy” system of airport charges in Britain.

The CAA has allowed BAA (the airport operator) to increase charges at Gatwick by 50% over the five years from April 2008 to April 2013, a move which will cost Easyjet £46 million. The airline has 37 aircraft at Gatwick and transports 9 million passengers a year.

Mr Harrison claims that the regulator held private talks with the operator after the deadline had passed for consultation. A spokesman for the CAA vowed to defend the decision vigorously, arguing that there had been proper consultation, something which Mr Harrison dismissed as “baloney”.

The charges being levied are to be invested in a £875 million plan for improvements to Gatwick. Mr Harrison is angry that airlines have to pay in advance and that there is no sign of any of the work being carried out at Gatwick. The situation has been further exacerbated by the likelihood of a new owner taking over at Gatwick and there is of course no guarantee that the new owner will carry out the work planned. Mr Harrison has called for a root and branch overhaul of the way airports are regulated.

The court hearing is expected to last all week and a decision should be made within two months.

The bid process for Gatwick Airport has been having a tumultuous time recently with a number of groups pulling out of the process.

The groups to get cold feet were the joint venture of RREEF Infrastructure and Babcock & Brown, and the consortium consisting of 3i Group PLC, Teachers' Pension Plan and Canada Pension Plan, which has not officially pulled out yet but has stated that the £2 billion price tag is too high.

It is all a blow to BAA Ltd., the owner of Gatwick, which is itself owned by the Spanish company, Grupo Ferrovial SA. Ferrovial had previously said that it was looking for binding bids on the process to come in by the end of March, but now it seems unlikely that this time period will be sufficient.

BAA has had to sell three of its seven airports, with Gatwick being the largest of them, and it is now thought that it will struggle to raise the money that it wants. The recession has had an effect on how much companies are willing to pay for the airport, and now the £2 billion being asked for seems a bit steep to many of them. However, it is now thought that some investors may even switch groups to stay involved in the bidding process.

The remaining two bids for the airport include those from:

• Global Infrastructure Partners, which comprises General Electric Co. and Credit Suisse Group.
• Lysander Gatwick Investment Group, which comprises a Citigroup infrastructure fund, Vancouver Airport and John Hancock Life Insurance Co.

It has been a week of travel chaos unprecedented in recent British history, as the worst snow for 20 years has mercilessly fallen upon the country, stranding motorists, shutting schools and preventing flights from taking off in the process. Gatwick was one of the airports worst affected by the horrendous conditions, with 23 flights cancelled and 18 more diverted because of the snow, leading to huge backlogs of flights and a fair number of disappointed and frustrated customers.

There is nothing that can be done about the weather, but Gatwick has compounded the misery of having to cancel flights as a result of the snow, by also having to divert a number of flights due to a mysterious spillage of hydraulic fuel on one of the runways.

On Tuesday 3rd February the main runway had to be closed for three hours while the emergency services worked quickly to clean up the hydraulic fuel. In total, 15 flights had to be diverted to the other runway at Gatwick, with a further 10 flights having to be diverted to other airports, including Stansted, Southampton, Bournemouth and Manston.

This will have proved hugely annoying to the customers caught up in the debacle, but it will also have frustrated the management of Gatwick, especially coming when it did straight after the snowfall had already caused havoc.

It still remains a mystery how the fluid managed to find its way on to the main runway, but no doubt an investigation will be launched to try to prevent such an event from happening again.

BAA, the owner of Gatwick Airport, has announced that the airport is likely to be sold at a premium over its RAB of £1.75 billion. The RAB (Regulated Asset Base) is used to value assets such as utilities taking into account the revenue generated by them.

Interested parties had until 3pm on January 19th to submit a bid and those who have done so include:

• Lysander Gatwick Investment Group comprising Citigroup Infrastructure, Vancouver Airport Services, and John Hancock life insurance group
• Gatwick Future Partnership comprising Deutsche Bank and Babcock & Brown
• Global Infrastructure Partners
• 3i, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Canadian Pension Plan
• Hochtief AirPort
• Manchester Airports Group and Borealis

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has apparently dropped out of the race despite showing keen interest initially. It is thought that it may join one of the consortiums in the future and with assets of about £475 billion it would no doubt be a welcome addition.

Gatwick is being sold as a result of the Competition Commission’s order for BAA, the largest airport operator in the world, to sell three airports after concerns were raised over the lack of competition, with BAA owning and managing a total of seven airports in the UK. The other airports likely to be sold off are Stansted and Edinburgh.

Eyebrows may well be raised at the level of interest being shown at a time when air travel is being badly affected by the global economic downturn. The figures for November 2008 showed that passenger numbers at Gatwick were down by 14%.

Figures released last week for passenger numbers during the month of December show a drop for BA but the news is much better for the budget carriers.

BA’s premium passenger numbers (business and first class) show the most significant decline with a reduction of 12.1%. This is obviously bad news for the airline since it depends to a great extent on this sector for most of its profits. Economy numbers were also down but only by 1.7%. Geographically, the worst hit routes were those serving the Asia Pacific region, although this downturn was mitigated to a small extent by African and Middle Eastern routes.

All in all, passenger numbers were down by 119,000 to 2.5 million. The cargo division fared no better with a decrease of 14.3% caused by the worldwide reduction in exports. Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA is, however, upbeat about the future, saying that BA will come out of the current economic situation ready to expand.

Easyjet’s passenger numbers were up for December but only by 10% to 2.9 million, which was 5% less than predicted by some analysts. Having spent billions of pounds on increasing its fleet, the carrier will need to sell tens of thousands of extra seats each week, although charging for extras such as checking in baggage is also a good money spinner for the airline.

Ryanair has followed Easyjet’s lead by holding a huge sale and currently has two million seats on sale for ten pounds including taxes and charges. The airline’s passenger figures were up by 11% in December to 4.37 million and a spokesman expressed confidence that the airline would do well in the current tough economic climate.

Most of us feel aggrieved if our flight lands an hour or so late at our destination but passengers flying recently from Gatwick to Sofia certainly had cause for complaint, when they arrived at the Bulgarian capital a staggering 32 hours later than scheduled. Indeed, a hundred and twenty passengers are so disgusted at the treatment received at the hands of Easyjet that they are currently considering taking legal action against the budget airline.

The chaos began last Saturday when the pilot announced to his passengers that Sofia airport had been closed due to heavy snow and that the flight would have to divert to Bucharest. The passengers were eventually told at two o’clock on Sunday morning that they would have to spend the night in the Romanian capital. They were put up at a local hotel, and had to wait until six o’clock on Sunday evening (when many of them should have been coming off Bulgaria’s ski slopes after the first day of their holiday) to begin a gruelling and dangerous coach trip to Sofia. The Romanian drivers were unsure of the route to Sofia and were busy peering at maps whilst driving on icy roads in sub-zero temperatures.

The passengers eventually arrived at their destination on Monday morning but to add insult to injury they later found out that Sofia airport had never been closed in the first place. According to airport authorities, the airport had remained open throughout the period and they could not explain why the Easyjet pilot had been diverted. Within half an hour of EZY8977’s expected landing time, seven other planes landed without problems.

Needless to say, passengers were completely unimpressed by the experience, during which they were given only one sandwich and a bottle of water by Easyjet.

The infrastructure arm of Citigroup, the American banking giant, has joined forces with Vancouver Airports Authority in an attempt to make a successful bid for London’s Gatwick Airport. The British Competition Commission announced earlier this year that the British Airports Authority must sell three of its airports and the bid from Vancouver and Citigroup, estimated at over $3 billion, is just one of several expected to be announced over the coming weeks.

Some bids have already been made public. Virgin Atlantic Airways, Hochtief AG (a German construction company), Fraport AG (the operator of Frankfurt airport), RREEF Alternative Investments (the infrastructure arm of Deutsche Bank AG) and Manchester Airports Group have all expressed interest in acquiring the airport.

Gatwick is the second biggest airport in the United Kingdom and the world’s busiest single-runway airport. Approximately 35 million people used the airport last year and the chief executive of the British Airports Authority, Colin Matthews, has spoken about the disappointment felt by those who had to make the decision to sell the airport. Matthews revealed that Gatwick had “long been an important and valuable part of BAA”.

Vancouver Airports Authority and Citigroup have worked together before successfully. Citi Infrastructure Investors, a unit of Citigroup, was handed a 50% stake in Vancouver Airport Services, which operates eighteen airports in numerous countries, earlier this year. Just last month, Vancouver Airports Authority was handed a contract worth approximately $2.5 billion to operate and further develop Chicago’s Midway Airport. This deal was carried out in accordance with Citigroup and John Hancock Life Insurance.

A recent inspection by the European Commission has revealed worrying security lapses at Gatwick airport. Staff there failed to spot a replica bomb hidden in an inspector’s hand luggage and fears have been expressed that the need to keep queues to a minimum may be compromising passenger safety. Under rules introduced in March, the airport authorities can be fined if queuing time at security is regularly five minutes or more. A follow-up test is due to be carried out within the next week.

The replica device was apparently flagged up by the scanners and the bag searched but it was then returned to the inspector because the member of the security staff did not realise what it was. According to an unnamed airport source, there is so much emphasis placed on searching for liquids that the basics are often overlooked. The same source also believes that computer generated images of banned items can cause a distraction for security staff. Experts in the field claim that because explosives are organic, it is often difficult to detect them and that staff have to concentrate on finding extremely small items such as timers, wires and detonators, which makes their job more difficult.

Several years ago, inspectors succeeded in getting fake guns and bombs through security at both Manchester and Stansted airports. A spokesman for BAA refused to confirm that the replica bomb had not been spotted although he was able to confirm that the inspection had taken place. The European Commission was no more forthcoming, refusing to discuss their findings.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways have made it abundantly clear that they are interested in purchasing a stake in London’s Gatwick airport as part of a scheme to encourage an extensive restructuring of both conventional airports and the aviation industry as a whole. The news comes after the Competition Commission ruled that the British Aviation Authority (BAA) held a monopoly over British aviation and must relinquish up to three of its airports to the highest bidder.

Virgin Atlantic is one of the largest and most profitable aviation companies in the United Kingdom, earning an average of around £47 million a year. The company was founded in 1984 and has vied for supremacy over aerospace colossus, British Airways, ever since its inauguration. Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic spokesperson Paul Charles have long petitioned for a complete re-think of the way airports are run, with the latter hopeful of a system that would allow airlines to operate airports independently. “It would make the experience for passengers so much better than it is today” Mr. Charles said.

The airline has expressed that it would only be interested in purchasing the airport as part of a consortium of other airlines but some groups fear that repackaging airports as a corporate plaything may jeopardise passenger safety. While the number of companies involved in the deal is still a matter of conjecture, some reports indicate that groups as diverse as the Dubai royal family may be persuaded to part with their cash for a slice of Britain’s second largest airport.

The proposed deal is still in an embryonic state but the total cost is expected to reach £3 billion.

The XL Leisure Group, which not only runs its own airline but also various tour companies, went into liquidation on Saturday, leaving 85,000 holidaymakers stranded abroad, some 200,000 facing the loss of their holiday and 1,700 staff without jobs. XL was the third largest travel company in the UK and is the biggest to go bust in twenty years.

It flew to 50 different countries, mainly in the Mediterranean, from 12 UK airports, although most of its flights operated out of Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow. The company blames its demise on the rising cost of fuel, the general economic gloom and the inability to raise capital.

Although the CAA has been working hard to repatriate stranded Brits, many on specially chartered planes, those who had not booked a package holiday were less fortunate. With the ATOL protection not applying to separately booked flights and hotels, holidaymakers were very much on their own and many were facing hefty bills to fly back to the UK. Rival operators were accused of exploiting the situation, with huge hikes in prices for those trying to book alternative flights.

The demise of XL comes in the wake of trans-Atlantic carrier Zoom going into administration last month and the business-class carriers, Silverjet, Eos and Maxjet going out of business earlier this year. Meanwhile, Willie Walsh of BA warned that up to a further 30 airlines may go bust before the end of the year.

The Telegraph newspaper offered advice to holiday makers on how to safeguard their money, and gave details of the type of help that travellers could expect, depending on how they had paid and the insurance cover that they had taken out.

The Travel Insurance Guide has recommended a list of travel insurance providers who will cover you for the financial failure of your airline or accommodation provider. With the current economic climate, this is vital, so make sure you check it out before booking your essential travel insurance.

Strike action always comes at the wrong place and the wrong time but then that’s half the point. Last month the aviation industry here in the UK was saved from what could have been another total disaster, one they could have certainly done without, given their current rocky period.

Back at the beginning of August, baggage handlers and check-in staff at Gatwick and Stansted threatened to go on strike over the August bank holiday, which would potentially have caused major disruption for over 400,000 passengers. The staff of Swiss based firm Swissport were in dispute over pay and rejected a 3% pay rise. Although the airlines claimed they would have an adequate contingency plan in place to cope with the loss, nothing would be quite sufficient and, after the debacle at Heathrow this year things might have gone from bad to worse.

But talks were held and finally deals were done and the staff, who would have affected flights on some of the busiest airlines such as Ryanair, Virgin and easyjet, finally accepted a 4% offer that would be back-dated to April 1st. Unite, the union representing the workers, has announced that workers of Swissport will be pleased that this has been resolved with their demands being heard without the need for major hold-ups. There were fears that the strike would seep into Manchester and Glasgow too, but this too was fortunately avoided.

BAA is to airports what Coca-Cola is to the soft drinks industry: it pretty much owns the lot. All the big airports such as Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, Glasgow, Aberdeen and more, are owned by the giant firm. However, things might all be about to change and the disastrous year that the aviation industry has had in the UK might be about to knock the school bully off his perch.

The muscle that BAA yields promoted an investigation from the Competition Commission, which concluded that such a monopoly on the industry was not healthy and that it might be forced to sell off some of its airports. This immediately set the business world alight and none more so than in the camp of that national treasure, Sir Richard Branson.

Branson is the ultimate risk-taker in terms of new business deals and has always been the same, irrespective of the millions in the bank. He pricked his ears up when Northern Rock were in trouble and now he’s pricking them up again with BAA. It’s not a bad idea to have one of the privately owned airlines in control of the airport; after all, they know the most about what passengers want and don’t want on a day to day basis.

The concern though is that such a deal from Virgin would mean we go from one monopoly to another. If Virgin owned Gatwick, then many of their rival airlines might worry that Virgin Atlantic would dominate the runways. However, Gatwick is big enough to be divided up and split amongst the airlines and this might end up being the best solution to the problem.

Airport staff working for Swissport are planning to strike at two London airports over the busy August bank holiday weekend, potentially leading to cancelled flights, long delays and stranded holidaymakers. Workers involved include baggage screeners, baggage handlers and check-in staff.

The strike is due to disputes over pay after workers rejected a 3% pay rise offer from Unite, the UK’s biggest manufacturing, technical and skilled persons’ union. The strike will also involve Stansted airport staff from other unions, including GMB, whose workers rejected a 1.5% payrise.

Airport staff claim they are struggling with the increasing price of living and are demanding a 5% rise, in line with the current increase in the retail price index. There are also calls for sick pay to be reintroduced for the first three days of absence resulting from illness.

The strike will affect Stansted and Gatwick with around 300 staff walking out for 24 hours on Monday, 25th August and possibly continuing on Friday, 29th August in other airports. Staff at airports in Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle will vote on industrial action in the coming weeks.

The strike could affect up to 1.3 million passengers on Virgin Atlantic, First Choice, North West and Monarch flights as well as those from several smaller airlines and charter flights. However, Swissport say they are working with the airports and airlines to limit disruption to the general public.

Earlier this year, airport staff threatened to walk out at seven British airports but these strikes were cancelled after BAA changed plans regarding pension rights.

Never one to mince his words, London Mayor Boris Johnson has lashed out at Gatwick airport officials, calling the managers there "chimpanzees". Mr Johnson was furious after he and his family arrived back to chaos at Gatwick following a holiday in Italy.

A chronic lack of passport officers coupled with delayed luggage was the cause of his wrath, and the "snivelling" and "insincere" apology that he received in a standard letter which was handed out to passengers for the sixth night running did nothing to pacify him. In his usual humourous fashion he likened the hundreds of passengers “shuffling round the ox-pens” to “inmates of some Victorian penitentiary”. He then described the passengers’ offer to liberate their luggage which they knew was on the tarmac in an “Entebbe style raid”. Many of them had been waiting for two and a half hours but needless to say this offer was turned down on health and safety grounds.

Officials from BAA and Servisair were conspicuous by their absence but, in the letter, the delay in luggage arriving on the carousel was put down to staff shortages.

Mr Johnson has been outspoken in his concerns that with the London Olympics only four years away, Gatwick is going to have to get its act together. Spanish owned BAA may well be compelled to sell Gatwick if the Competition Commission rules that the stranglehold over the UK’s biggest seven airports should be loosened. It has been accused of ill-serving airlines and travellers alike and of putting shopping over the needs of passengers.

Mr Johnson was not the only politician to be put out by his Gatwick experience last week. John Prescott was reportedly seen as looking most perturbed when trying to check in at the Easyjet desk for a flight to Edinburgh. Given that his tickets were for the BA flight perhaps it is not surprising that he was not on the passenger list!

The British Airport Authority (BAA) is set to sell off a number of its airports after the Competition Commission published its preliminary report on 20th August 2008. BAA, which is owned by Spanish company Ferrovial, has a near monopoly on airports in Southeast England and Scotland. The company is responsible for over 60% of all flights to and from the UK (BBC News, August 2008).

The Competition Commission have recommended that BAA sells three of its seven airports, including two of its London airports and either Glasgow or Edinburgh Airport, after claims that BAA is unable to run all of its airports efficiently and is failing passengers with poor levels of customer service and long delays.

The findings come as no surprise to Sir Nigel Rudd, Chairman of BAA, the company which owns three major London airports as well as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports. However, Rudd also claims that selling Gatwick or Stansted will make little difference as neither airport poses a real threat to business at Heathrow Airport.

The move is welcomed by many major airlines operating in and around London. Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair have both expressed their support and Virgin is currently in talks with other airlines regarding joint ownership of Gatwick Airport. Ryanair are also reviewing their financial situation to see if it would be viable to purchase Stansted airport, the Irish company’s biggest hub.
Several international companies, including Manchester Airport Group and Global Infrastructure, have expressed interest in buying BAA’s airports as well, with Hochtief, a German construction company, and Australian bank Macquarie topping the list of potential buyers for Gatwick. Macquarie already owns Bristol and Birmingham airports.

The Competition Commission’s final report regarding the company’s future will be issued in April 2009.

Flights from the UK to the Canaries have been hitting the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. First there was the family who was sent to Turkey instead of Lanzarote, followed closely by the case of the woman who managed to fly to Fuerteventura on her husband’s passport. Now a flight from Gatwick to Gran Canaria has been cancelled because the pilot’s licence had expired!

The Easyjet flight headed to Las Palmas last Monday had 200 passengers on board, all of whom were most put out by the cancellation, especially when they were informed by the airline that, due to limited availability, not all of them would be transferred to the flight due to leave the following day. Some holiday makers had to wait until the Saturday for an alternative flight although they could have opted to receive a refund, not always practical if you have accommodation booked at your destination. One family chose to pay over £3,000 to fly with another airline in order to salvage their holiday plans. A spokesperson from Easyjet said that it was the pilot’s responsibility to ensure that his licence was kept up to date.

A pilot’s licence has to be renewed every five years and competency tests taken every year. In addition, a medical examination has to be passed between every one and three years. Unless each of the three elements is fulfilled, the pilot is deemed to be flying illegally and can be prosecuted. Last year it was reported at the time of the Colin McRae helicopter crash that his licence may have expired two years earlier.

If you are a fan of the television show Airline, and enjoy being a fly-on-the-wall for all the little dramas that take place on a daily basis at the airport or onboard the plane, then you are in for an enjoyable autumn.

ITV2 and Monarch Airlines have got together to launch a new celebrity show with a difference. CelebAir will be a real airline with its own colours and uniform, operating out of Gatwick airport and flying real holidaymakers to various destinations. However, it will be staffed by ten celebrities who, although unnamed, are expected to include well known sports personalities and pop stars.

The flying public will be relieved to hear that the pilot’s job is not amongst the roles being assumed by the celebrities. They will, however, be doing everything else from selling tickets, checking travellers in, manning the gates and stewarding the plane.

The series will comprise of eight parts and will be presented by Angelica Bell, whom you may remember from CBBC and Departure Lounge. Each week passengers will judge how the celebs have fared, and the worst performing member of the crew will be voted off.

A six week training course will be provided by Monarch Airlines, and the celebs will be governed by normal airline standards whilst working on the flights. What's more, it's all in a good cause with the winner receiving thousands of pounds for their favourite charity.

Destinations served by CelebAir include Larnaca, Faro, Alicante, Mohon, Malaga, Ibiza and Tenerife, and tickets went on sale to the public on 14 July – see here for more details.

A Bristol man has won a court ruling to force a payment from budget airline EasyJet, after EasyJet refused to refund substantial charges following a missed departure from Sicily to Gatwick last year.

Craig Stevens, aged 40, missed the flight from Palermo in Sicily to Gatwick Airport, after a freak flood meant that he and his family were unable to travel to get their flight. On realising they would miss their flight home, Mr Stevens immediately telephoned EasyJet from the train on the way to the airport and was assured that he would only have to pay £35 to reschedule the flight. However, Mr Stevens was not told that he would have to check in within two hours of his original flight in order to take advantage of the minimal charge. Instead, on arriving at the airport with wife Utako and two year old daughter Lana, Mr Stevens ended up having to pay an additional £300 to get his family home.

On returning to the UK, Mr Stevens lodged a legal claim for a refund of £300 at Bristol County Court, but after EasyJet failed to pay the charges within 28 days of the claim, he sought permission to force a debt judgment on the airline. After winning his request to have bailiffs reclaim the £300 plus the £55 bailiff costs and £40 court charges, Mr Stevens said, “It’s a massive relief to have the whole saga come to an end. The fees were in danger of turning my budget holiday into a really expensive one.” Following the court ruling EasyJet was given a week to pay the charges before the bailiffs would remove £400 of its property from the airline’s Head Office in Luton.

In a post 9/11 world, airport security is a headache for the authorities. Everyone wants to feel safe when they fly but no-one wants to stand in long queues at security. Providing extra staff to speed the process up would cost more and this would inevitably lead to fare increases. No-one would be prepared to accept this, at a time when nipping over to the Continent for a quick break is seen as being almost on an economic par with going out for a curry.

It may therefore come as no surprise to anyone that a security guard at Gatwick has blown the whistle on lapses, which mean that passengers have been able to walk through the security check points carrying knives and guns. Even more alarming is the allegation that even when security staff have been tipped off about a passenger carrying a weapon, they have often been unable to find it.

In a culture where targets have to be met or fines faced, security at airports is no exception and, according to the security guard, passengers have to be processed at a rate of one every 16 seconds to avoid hefty financial penalties being imposed on BAA. Experts in the industry say that a thorough security inspection takes between 15 and 30 seconds.

After the story appeared in the Argus newspaper, many members of the public posted comments online to the effect that the guard may have an axe to grind and that, given the reported lapses, it was surprising that no-one had made use of the offensive weapons. Whatever the truth of the situation, a spokesman for Gatwick has emphasised the airport’s commitment to passenger safety and security.

Last year the Gatwick Express, the dedicated rail service serving the airport, was under threat of closure in order to provide more capacity for commuter services between London and Brighton, one of the busiest services in the country. Thanks to a campaign waged by airlines, staff and members of the public, the threat was lifted and at 3.30am on Sun 22nd June, Southern ran its first train out of London Victoria to Gatwick.

According to Southern’s MD, Chris Burchell, passengers will see little change with the high standards of service being maintained. There are, however, improvements such as new ticket machines at both Victoria and Gatwick, making it easier for travellers to purchase their train tickets.

From December, the service will be extended to Brighton each morning and evening, providing an extra 2000 seats on the hard pressed commuter line. Old coaches have been taken out of storage and reconditioned to provide the extra capacity.

The service takes just 30 minutes from London to Gatwick (35 minutes on a Sunday) and costs £16.90 for a single ticket or £28.80 return. It is not a 24 hour service, however, with the first train from London leaving at 03.30 and the last at 00.30. From Gatwick, the first service runs at 04.30 and the last at 01.35. For much of the day, trains run every 15 mins but for exact times see here.

There is ample space for luggage and if you have bulky items such as skis, bikes or surf boards they can be put in the luggage van. In addition, a free porter service at both Victoria and Gatwick is offered.

Most passengers living in the south east, if given the choice between flying from Heathrow or Gatwick. will opt for Gatwick any day of the week. Avoiding what has been dubbed Heathrow Hell has become a number one priority when booking flights and, last week, Gatwick received the accolade of being voted the best out of the ten most busy airports in Europe, as far as queuing time at security is concerned.

Each quarter, a survey is conducted by the Airports Council International, with passengers from all over the world involved in it. There are thirty five different categories, covering all sorts of services provided by airports, and Gatwick has really pulled out all the stops to get to this position. Twelve months ago it was rated seventh out of ten and, according to Andy Flower, the managing director of BAA at Gatwick, this is a “testament to the dedication and commitment” of the staff at the airport.

Gatwick beat Amsterdam’s Schiphol, Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly, Rome, Madrid, Copenhagen, Manchester, Heathrow and Frankfurt. The rating is no mean feat given that the airport handles in excess of 35 million passengers each year. As anyone who has used Gatwick recently will tell you, the extra 650 staff at security and 7 extra security lanes have certainly paid dividends in reducing queues at what experts agree is the most stressful point of a passenger’s journey.

A survey conducted by the travel and tourism industry in Jan this year discovered that security queues were one of the top three gripes with passengers, along with slow check-in procedures and crowds in airport lounges.

Earlier this week, just as the champagne corks should have been flying, embarrassment was caused at Gatwick airport by the break-down of the monorail service which transports passengers between the North and South terminals.

Gatwick was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary whilst thousands of passengers faced chaos and ran the risk of missing their flights. The monorail broke down late on Sunday evening but luckily no passengers were stuck on it, due to a contingency door release. At one point, travellers had to walk between the terminals – no mean feat given the distance especially when carrying heavy luggage – although a coach service was later put on. The service was able to resume later the next day as Gatwick investigated the cause of the fault.

More potential travel problems had been averted a few days earlier, when a fire broke out in the car park of South Terminal. Fortunately, a motorist unloading his luggage before jetting off on holiday had spotted smoke coming out from under his bonnet and had been able to extinguish the electrical fire before it gained a bigger grip.

Although Gatwick has been in existence for some seventy years, it was not until 9 June 1958 that the newly extended airport was opened by the Queen. A two year building programme, costing £7.8, made Gatwick the first airport in the world which combined transport opportunities by plane, train and car in a single unit. It is now the second busiest UK airport and busiest single runway airport in the world.

Gatwick is now home to the world's biggest passenger bridge. The bridge, which spans a working taxiway, has been built to allow passengers to walk to the aircraft instead of having to use the coach services. The whole development is designed to make passenger journeys through Gatwick more comfortable, and the airport's running more efficient.

With a second terminal planned to be in operation after 2019, it is understandable that local residents are concerned how this will affect them. To try and ensure that the new runway causes as few problems as possible, BAA has launched a "blight assistance scheme" to help those with concerns. The scheme aims to consult with local residents, businesses and the council and take on board suggestions made by them to minimise disruption as the airport expands.