London Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport is London's second largest airport and second busiest in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. In 2008, it was the world's 28th busiest airport in terms of passengers and 9th busiest in terms of international passengers. It is the world's busiest single-runway international airport.

Gatwick is 2.7 NM (5.0 km; 3.1 mi) north of central Crawley, West Sussex (originally Surrey), 24.7 NM (45.7 km; 28.4 mi) south of London.[1] Gatwick is owned and operated by BAA, which owns and operates six other UK airports, including Heathrow, and is itself owned by an international consortium led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.

Passenger numbers peaked in 2007 when the airport handled over 35 million passengers for the first time, however this total reduced by 2.9% in 2008 with 34,205,887 passengers using Gatwick and 263,653 aircraft movements recorded.

In 2008 Gatwick celebrated 50 years - Queen Elizabeth II opened the airport on 9 June 1958.

Charter airlines generally do not operate from Heathrow and use Gatwick as a base for London and the South East. For 30 years flights to and from the USA have also used Gatwick because of restrictions on Heathrow in the 1977 Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. The airport is a base for scheduled operators Aer Lingus, British Airways, EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic. The airport is also a base for charter airlines including Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways.

London Gatwick has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P528) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.

On 17 September 2008, BAA said it would sell Gatwick following a report by the Competition Commission into BAA's dominance, especially in London and the South East. The airport has been valued at £1.8 billion by regulators.

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