New owners transform Gatwick

News at Gatwick 29/11/2010

Netherlands may close cannabis cafes : November 2010 : Spanish airports playing catch up following strike

Since the BAA sale, the infamous airport has been turned around, say passengers.

Travellers who regularly fly through Gatwick Airport say they have seen a dramatic turnaround in the customer experience. The airport used to be infamous for incredibly long queues, frequent bouts of chaos and unfriendly staff.

Every year, some 32 million people fly through Gatwick, which is one of London’s main airports and is one of the bases for operations by British Airways. As recently as a year ago, the airport was referred to as ‘hell’ by regular users.

Last year, however, Gatwick was sold to Global Infrastructure Partners, an investment fund, by former owners BAA. Anti-monopoly authorities had ordered Spanish-owned BAA to sell off some of its holdings in the UK in order to foster better competition for passengers.

Since that sale on 4 December, 2009, the new owners appear to have overseen a major transformation of operations at Gatwick. Complaints about the queues for security clearance are down by 70 per cent. Positive feedback from passengers has gone up by 100 per cent.

Every month over the last year, Gatwick has achieved the targets it has for how long it takes to get travellers through security. At least 95 per cent of passengers have to be screened in a maximum of five minutes.

The improvements in handling queues at security are just one aspect of the upgraded service at Gatwick since its sale. Passengers say the airport overall is more pleasant. The airport is also pressuring airlines to improve baggage handling.

Netherlands may close cannabis cafes : November 2010 : Spanish airports playing catch up following strike

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