Gatwick touting for more long haul trade as Qatar pulls the plug

Commercial director Guy Stephenson was speaking at the Aviation Outlook conference in Dubai today and said the airport had been thinking "out of the box" and looking at how to improve the customer experience and by so doing, making London's second airport more attractive to airlines.

"We are exceeding 95% of our passengers passing through security in less than five minutes," he said.

But the improvements could be coming too late for GCC airlines.

Qatar Airlines has become the latest of the GCC carriers to announce it is quitting Gatwick to focus on Heathrow. The airline’s last flight will be on May 31 Both Eitihad and Oman Air have already moved from the single-runway airport leaving just Emirates as the only major east-bound long-haul airline.

The Doha airline has been at Gatwick for seven years and its flights to the Far East and Australia had been popular with leisure passengers becasue of lower prices than from London's main hub. It is understood Qatar will use the available aircraft to enhance its routes to Manchester which goes double daily from June 1.
Both Etihad and Oman Air have moved their operations to Heathrow,.

Emirates, which has been at Gatwick since 1987 and flies three times a day to Dubai, said it remained committed to the airport.