Britain's second-busiest air hub, Gatwick airport has reported a £343m pre-tax loss after traveller numbers plunged by two-thirds in the first half of this year. It had announced plans to cut 600 jobs, citing a 61 per cent dip in revenues in the first half from £372m to £144m. Gatwick is operating flights from only one of its two terminals, as passenger numbers fell from 22 million to only 7.5 million in the first six months.
Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick airport said, “The negative impact of Covid-19 on our passenger numbers and air traffic at the start of the year was dramatic and, although there are small signs of recovery, it is a trend we expect to continue to see. As with any responsible company we have protected our financial resilience by significantly reducing our operational costs and capital expenditure.”
The company is cutting capital expenditure by over £300m over the next two years and has cut costs by in excess of £100m. Over 70 per cent of staff remain on furlough. The update comes at a time when one of the airport's four biggest customers, Norwegian, reported a £610m first-half loss and warned that it needed another cash injection. The third-largest low-cost airline in Europe, said passenger numbers had dropped 99 per cent in the second quarter. The airline, which already has a £340m loan guarantee from the Norwegian government, said it would not be enough to get it through the crisis.
Heathrow airport reported a £1b loss in the first half as passenger numbers fell by 96 per cent in the second quarter. The airport's chief executive John Holland-Kaye accused the government of playing “quarantine roulette” by failing to introduce a passenger testing regime. He said the government needed to look at adopting the policies of some other European countries that have seen air travel pick up faster because they are not making snap decisions to introduce quarantines.
