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Our passenger commitments
I want Gatwick to be better than the rest. I’ve got no doubt that a competitive spirit exists at the airport now, particularly after having been part of a monopoly across the south east for so long.
For me, being better starts with understanding what our passengers really want. If we don’t get that right, we’re seriously letting down our customers.
Together with our airport partners we’ve agreed three shared passenger commitments. Simply put:
We’ll treat you as our guest.
We hate queues.
We love to be on time.With these in mind, we’ve made some small but innovative changes to the airport during our first year of new ownership. I hope you’ve noticed.
You might have seen our security assistance lanes for passengers who most need our help - older people, those with disabilities or families with young children. These dedicated lanes enable our staff to provide the extra support that really helps make their airport journey that bit less stressful.
If you’ve flown with Norwegian recently, you might have used the self service technology to check-in and tag your own luggage. I know I’d prefer to do it myself if it means saving time – and it does. Passengers who check-in online now take on average just 23 seconds to use this fast bag drop.
Of course, we’re only as good as the 25,000 employees and service partners who work at the airport. Whether they greet you at check-in, load your luggage onto the plane or check your passport at immigration. Everyone who works at the airport has a role to play.
One thing I hear time and again from passengers is ‘why do I have to wait so long for my bags‘? We now publish monthly performance stats showing how quickly our busiest airlines deliver passengers’ bags to the reclaim belt.
In the last three months, we’ve seen waiting times improve. So a little healthy competition between airlines seems to be paying off and our passenger commitments are helping us deliver better together every day.
3 Comments
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- Peter Hall, Chairman, Gatwick PAG:
- Posted: 3:36pm. Saturday 2 April 2011
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These are three excellent commitments. Members of the Gatwick Passenger Advisory Group look forward to working with Gatwick Airport and all stakeholders to make these commitments become reality.
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- Stewart replies:
- Posted: 2:58pm. Friday 25 March 2011
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Peter, thanks for the feedback. You raise an important issue that is high on our agenda at the moment. Back in December 2008, the last direct service into Kent via Gatwick was discontinued. We think that it's vitally important that we get that link restored.
Two million passengers in Kent use Gatwick every year and around 1,000 staff at Gatwick also live in the county. As you highlight, they need access to and from the airport on a daily basis. Kent County Council also agrees that there is a real need for some form of direct rail link to be restored. We have raised this issue in parliament with the rail minister, Theresa Villiers MP.
At the moment, we are awaiting a response from Network Rail on whether they will recommend the re-introduction of this service as part of their periodic review of rail needs in the region. We very much hope the answer will be positive.
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- peter foote:
- Posted: 10:32am. Thursday 24 March 2011
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I think it is an exciting and challenging time at Gatwick. What we are achieving is being recognised by passengers and staff. It is with pride that I tell people I work at Gatwick. In all this growth and development I often tell friends and strangers in Kent (where I live) that they should use Gatwick rather than Heathrow or Stansted. The issue they have is the transportation network connecting Kent to Gatwick. Currently travelling the 25 miles by train would involve 3 trains and 2 changes. Is any discussion taking place with the rail companies to develop easier passenger links with Gatwick?
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