On 17th May 1936, passengers boarded the first scheduled service running from Gatwick to Paris. A single ticket that included the flight and first class train fare from Victoria cost four pounds and five shillings, which is approximately £160.22 by today’s prices.
By the end of 1936, passengers were able to fly to Paris, Malmo via Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen and the Isle of Wight from Gatwick.
From 1939 to 1945, Gatwick Airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry for use by the RAF during the 2nd World War.
In 1952, approval was given by the Government for the proposed development of Gatwick as an alternative to Heathrow. Gatwick then closed down in March 1956 so that the new London Airport could be built.
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Gatwick Airport - Quick Facts & Figures |
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2nd busiest airport in the UK |
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6th busiest international airport |
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Busiest single runway Airport in the World |
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UK & Northern Ireland Flights |
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32 Million passengers per year |
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Two airport terminals |
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Employs 25,000, 2,000 of which are employed by BAA alone |
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Approximately 90 Airlines fly to over 200 destinations |
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Over 216,000 tonnes of air cargo per year |
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On 9th June 1958, Her Majesty The Queen officially opened Gatwick Airport, after
2¾ years of building costing £7.8 Million.
London Gatwick was the first airport in the world to combine air, rail and road transport, all in a close-knit single unit.
In 1962, work began on enlarging the airport which resulted in the existing terminal doubling in size. In 1967, passenger figures had increased to 2 Million per year.
The Airport had soon outgrown the single terminal available, and in 1983, work began on constructing the ‘North Terminal’. The North Terminal was to be the largest single construction project to have taken place in the 1980s south of London.
The new £200 Million North Terminal was later officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh in 1988.
In July 1985, British Airways Concorde made its first ever commercial flight from Gatwick Airport.
After three years in close consultation with local authorities and Gatwick communities, a Sustainable Development Strategy was launched by BAA Gatwick in 2000, outlining how the airport should develop during the next ten years.
In 2001, BAA Gatwick developed a unique legal agreement with West Sussex County Council and Crawley Borough Council, to protect local communities from the impacts of future airport growth.
The World-first Pier 6 passenger bridge opened for business in 2005, allowing passengers to walk over the live taxiway.
The Airport’s development strategy for the future focuses on expansion as a single-runway, two-terminal airport, as it grows to handle approximately 40 million passengers a year by 2010 - 2011.
In response to ‘The Future of Aviation’, a White Paper that set Government policy for future airport development in the UK, in March 2005 BAA Gatwick published an outline master plan showing how Gatwick Airport could develop over the next 10 and 25 years, with the possibility of the development of a 2nd runway in 2019 or 2030.
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