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Dave

London Gatwick Airport unveils new brand identity and vision

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London Gatwick has unveiled its new brand identity and refreshed vision, reflecting its strong ongoing recovery from the pandemic, providing a platform for the airport’s next phase of growth and supporting significant economic opportunities for the region.

Acknowledging the airport’s proud history, the new, modernised brand is designed to reaffirm and showcase London Gatwick’s position as a major international gateway. It also recognises the airport as part of the broader VINCI Airports network.

Gatwick rebrand: launch aligns with significant investment in improvements across the airport



The vision – To be the airport for everyone, whatever your journey – focuses on delivering a personalised experience to meet passengers’ individual needs.

Underpinning the vision is a strengthened focus and investment on simplifying the journey through the airport by focusing on ease, efficiency and experience. This will allow passengers more time to shop, have a drink, or finish some last-minute work calls or emails.

Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, London Gatwick said,

This is a perfect time for us to launch our new brand and refreshed vision, as we head into our second year of recovery from the global pandemic and look to embark on a very promising chapter of growth.

We are taking a multi-dimensional approach, combining investment in airport development, along with a new visual identity, to rejuvenate the image of London Gatwick.

We expect this will translate to more people choosing to fly from the airport, with even more exciting destinations for passengers.

Our previous brand served us well for over ten years, but it’s now the right time to modernise and update our airport.

As we look ahead to future growth, our refreshed brand celebrates the past and brings us into the future.

Accompanying the new brand and vision is an exciting multi-million pound development programme.

Social: new branding appears across Gatwick’s digital channels

This significant programme of investment includes the expansion and refurbishment of departure lounges to create more modern, appealing spaces for passengers, while at the same time considering the airport’s sustainability goals.

It will also focus on accelerating automation in cutting-edge improvements across check-in and boarding, as well as enhanced airfield technology. A multi-million-pound upgrade of Gatwick Airport railway station is also on-track for completion later this year.

The new branding can already be seen across many of Gatwick’s digital and social channels, as well as key focal points within the airport. Over the coming months passengers, airport partners and colleagues will see it come to life across the airport.

Gatwick is the UK’s second largest airport and is a vital piece of national infrastructure that helps drive both the regional and national economy.

More than 40 airlines fly from the airport to over 150 short-haul and more than 45 long-haul destinations. The airport is focused on rebuilding and growing sustainably in the long term. It has ambitious plans to be a net zero airport by 2030 and increase capacity by bringing its Northern runway into routine use.

VINCI Airports owns a 50.01% stake in the airport, with Global Infrastructure Partners managing the remaining 49.99% interest. The world’s leading private airport operator, VINCI Airports operates more than 65 airports in twelve countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Thanks to its expertise as a global integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and manages airports by providing its investment capacity and its know-how in optimising operational performance, modernizing infrastructures and managing their operations and environmental transition.

VINCI Airports is the first airport operator to have committed to a global international environmental strategy in 2016, to achieve the goal of net zero emission across its entire network by 2050.

Dave

London Gatwick serves 32.8 million passengers in 2022, up from 6.3 million in 2021

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Annual traffic results published by VINCI Airports show that London Gatwick Airport served 32.8 million passengers in 2022, which represents 71% of 2019 numbers.  This follows the airport welcoming only 6.3 million passengers in 2021.

Gatwick Airport’s strong recovery is further evidenced by its increased long-haul connectivity, with the airport now serving 42 global routes – 68% of the number flown pre-pandemic.

The airport’s long-haul network was recently boosted by an announcement Air India will fly to four new destinations – Goa, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Kochi (Cochin).

Delta Air Lines also returns to Gatwick, flying the airport’s fourth daily flight to New York, while British Airways will operate new routes to Vancouver, Georgetown and Las Vegas this summer, in addition to their services to the Caribbean, North and Central America, the Middle East and Mauritius.

Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, London Gatwick Airport said:

Today’s figures are extremely positive and clearly show London Gatwick’s continued strong recovery. We still have some way to go but we’re looking forward to welcoming even more passengers this year, including those flying to our growing choice of long-haul destinations.

There were 213,952 total aircraft movements at London Gatwick in 2022, which is 76% of the number in 2019 (281,000).  52,000 aircraft arrived or departed the airport in 2021.

Dave

Gatwick partners with GRIDSERVE to build an Electric Forecourt

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A partnership between Gatwick Airport and sustainable energy company GRIDSERVE will build the Gatwick Electric Forecourt – an electric charging, net zero equivalent to a petrol station – that will be available to millions of passengers, commuters, staff, local residents and businesses that pass through the airport and its surrounding motorway network each year.

The new facility – a UK airport first – will be located on the Ring Road South approach to Gatwick’s South Terminal and adjacent to the M23 – it will enable 36 Electric Vehicles to be charged simultaneously, with high-power chargers that can deliver up to 350 kW of charging power, capable of adding 100 miles of range in less than 10 minutes. Multiple charging connectors will cater for all types of electric cars.

The site is due to open in Autumn 2022 and will host a café, comfortable waiting lounge with free superfast WiFi, convenience supermarket, children’s play area and a dedicated educational space to increase awareness around electric vehicles. As with all of GRIDSERVE’s chargers, the site will also be supplied with low cost, 100% renewable net zero carbon energy generated by GRIDSERVE’s own solar farms.

The Electric Forecourt also forms part of Gatwick Airport’s commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions for its internal operations before 2040 and its broader aspirations to become the UK’s most sustainable airport, including through involvement in UK industry plans to reach net zero aircraft emissions by 2050. It also contributes to majority stakeholder VINCI Airports’ global environmental action plan – the first in the industry to be applied to a network of 45 airports in 12 countries – to develop carbon-free energy for passengers and users.

Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, Gatwick Airport, said:

Gatwick is pleased to partner with GRIDSERVE to deliver this fantastic and sustainable service. We are on a journey to create a low carbon economy, and Gatwick is keen to play an important role by providing new infrastructure that everyone can use, including a transformed and well-connected railway station, so that together we can start reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

Our new high-powered charging facility – delivered by GRIDSERVE – will help meet the increasing need for electric vehicle charging infrastructure at the airport, including the growing number of our passengers who own electric vehicles and need fast, convenient and effective charging facilities.

The new charging infrastructure will also benefit people right across our community, including thousands of staff who live locally, businesses looking to introduce electric vehicle fleets – even those operating busses and trucks – and also local residents who may be considering buying an electric-powered car but were undecided due to the lack of charging facilities.

Toddington Harper, CEO of GRIDSERVE, said:

Gatwick isn’t just an airport, it’s an ecosystem of commuters, travellers, staff, taxi drivers, car rental companies, local residents and businesses, all culminating in a transport hub that hosts tens of millions of drivers every single year. The Gatwick Electric Forecourt® will give these drivers and businesses the confidence to switch away from petrol and diesel cars, making electric journeys to and from one of the country’s most important transport hubs straightforward and sustainable.

For maximum accessibility, all of GRIDSERVE’s chargers offer contactless payment and require a £1 bank card preauthorisation check to activate a charge, which, the airport says, makes it ‘even more convenient to pay’.

GRIDSERVE® is a tech-enabled sustainable energy business whose purpose is to deliver sustainable energy and move the needle on climate change.

GRIDSERVE is also developing several large-scale hybrid solar + battery farms to supply renewable solar energy as part of a “sun-to-wheel” ecosystem. Every kW of energy taken out of the grid by a GRIDSERVE EV charger is netted off against a kW of zero carbon solar energy put back into the grid by a GRIDSERVE solar farm, creating a net zero carbon, low cost transport system today. GRIDSERVE claims this means it is able to provide ‘the most competitive rate for high-powered charging today’.

GRIDSERVE also leases EVs, with 100 trees planted for every EV leased, offsetting embodied emissions.