Press Release

(Gatwick Airport Limited (“the Company”) is the owner and operator of Gatwick Airport (“Gatwick”))

• Solid underlying passenger growth estimated at 3.3%, adjusting for ash cloud and other one-off events last year; actual increase of 8.5%
• Continuous improvement in operational performance
  o all service quality regime measures achieved in August, September and October and all security queuing targets met throughout the year
  o 13%pts improvement in on-time performance in the 3 peak Summer months
• Strong financial performance reflecting traffic growth, restructuring of landing charges, and tight cost control
  o turnover up 14.8% to £314.5 million
  o EBITDA (pre-exceptional items) up 34.4% to £164.4 million
• More than £20 million invested each month delivering new and improved facilities
• Five new airlines commencing operations in Winter 2012

1. For the year ending 31 March 2012, the structure of landing charges has been amended, with landing charges eliminated in the winter (November to March inclusive) and commensurately uplifted in the summer (April to October inclusive).  Of the £34m increase in airport and other traffic charges turnover in the six months ended 30 September 2011, an estimated £14m of this is attributed to the landing charges restructuring.
2. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and before ‘operating costs – exceptional’.
3. The Company’s net debt and Regulatory Asset Base are shown as at 30 September 2011.

Stewart Wingate, Chief Executive Officer of Gatwick Airport, said:

“The six months between April and September has seen strong passenger growth for Gatwick, with an 8.5% increase in traffic. Even allowing for factors such as ash that affected all major airports across Europe in the summer months in the prior period we saw underlying growth of 3.3%, driven primarily by existing airlines such as easyJet, BA and Norwegian expanding their operations and adding new routes.

“Future passenger growth is dependent upon making the most efficient use of our single runway.  We have now increased the aircraft landing charge during our busiest period - the Summer - and removed the landing charge in Winter to encourage greater all-year round use of the airport. We are already seeing a number of new airlines choosing to operate services from Gatwick starting this Winter, including AirAsia X, Vietnam Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. 

“This restructuring of charges, combined with strong traffic growth and a continued focus on cost efficiency, has helped us achieve a strong financial result with EBITDA (pre-exceptional items) up 34.4% to £164.4 million.

“We continued to implement our £1.2 billion investment programme during this period, investing in excess of £20 million each month to deliver improved facilities for our passengers and airlines.  Passengers are now benefiting from an impressive new security area in the South Terminal which uses the best technology to help them get through the security process within five minutes or less.  The ‘front door’ to the North Terminal is now more spacious and modern with more self service check-in options.

“One of our stated commitments to our passengers is that we will do our best to get them off on time.  I am very pleased to say that our on-time performance has shown a significant improvement. In the peak three months of the Summer, approximately 75% of flights departed on time compared to 62% in the same period last year.  We have also achieved our service quality regime measures in each of the last three months to end October, which means passengers are getting a good level of service as they journey through our airport.”

Media enquiries: Sarah Baranowski + 44( 0)1293 505000

Investor enquiries: Ben Nolan +44 (0) 1293 502589

Further information
You can view or download a copy of our financial statements and results presentation for the six months ended 30 September 2011.