An increase in traffic, turnover and pre-tax profits at Gatwick over the past six months has prompted the airport to repeat its plea for a second runway.
Announcing the latest set of financial results which showed a 4.4% rise in traffic to 20.8 million passengers for the period to the end of September, CEO Stewart Wingate said: "The UK’s next runway has got to be at Gatwick."
Turnover was up 10.7% to £360.6 million, leading to a pre-tax profit of £127.3 million.
Traffic growth came from mainly Euroepan shorthaul routes, particularly from Norwegian Airlines which launched 12 new routes, and increasing business services from easyJet and Turkish Airlines.
Wingate pointed out that the airport, once known for its bucket-and-spade holiday flights, now serves routes as diverse as Moscow, Beijing, Istanbul and key cities in Vietnam.
"Substantial growth continues to come from our extensive European network" said Wingage. "Next year, we will continue to grow our long haul network with routes including Jakarta, New York and Los Angeles.
"This is just the start of what Gatwick has to offer. A new runway here would deliver the routes that passengers actually want at a better price, more quickly and with significantly less environmental impact."
