Which Airlines Had The Biggest Presence At London Gatwick Airport In 2023?

London Gatwick Airport (LGW) is a handy hub for passengers in southeastern England, with an interesting mix of full-service, leisure, and low-cost carriers serving the facility. As the UK’s second-busiest airport, there’s no shortage of variety when it comes to its airlines, but some have larger presences there than others.

easyJet rules the roost

According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, there were 255,630 passenger-carrying flights scheduled to depart from and arrive at London Gatwick Airport last year. Incredibly, one airline accounts for almost half of these, and those who have visited the facility will be unsurprised to see easyJet on top.

The airport’s apron is, at any given time, generally a veritable sea of orange, and this is underlined by the fact that the low-cost giant accounted for 126,666 of London Gatwick’s scheduled flights last year (49.55%). As we shall see later in the article, this whopping total is more than four times higher than the next-largest figure.

These flights accounted for a grand total of 22,324,118 seats in 2023, as well as an impressive 19,598,097,722 available seat miles (ASMs). easyJet has already overtaken its pre-pandemic capacity levels at Gatwick, with Cirium’s data showing that it had 123,204 flights and 21,280,113 scheduled seats there in 2019.

British Airways stands alone in second place

The top three is completed by a pair of carriers that both belong to the International Airlines Group (IAG), with the larger of the two being second-placed British Airways. While BA’s main hub is situated at nearby London Heathrow Airport (LHR), it still had a significant presence at Gatwick last year, with 30,057 flights.

While this figure is less than a quarter of what easyJet managed, the ratio was a little closer when it came to seats. Indeed, with a total of 6,619,534 offered last year, British Airways’ services to and from London Gatwick Airport in 2023 averaged 220 seats per flight. Meanwhile, the mean figure for easyJet came to 176.

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British Airways’ offering last year also resulted in a total of 14,721,408,516 available seat miles. This considerable figure is (proportionally speaking) much closer to any of the other metrics topped by easyJet, and it reflects the fact that the oneworld founding member serves certain long-haul destinations from Gatwick.

Vueling nabs third place

Rounding out the top three, we have Spanish low-cost carrier and fellow IAG carrier Vueling, with 17,490 scheduled flights to and from Gatwick last year. These offered 3,211,436 seats at an average of 184 per flight. Interestingly, its 2,289,978,276 ASMs were only the sixth-highest, with TUI, Emirates, and Norse Atlantic exceeding this total thanks to their longer flights (despite operating fewer rotations).

What do you make of these figures? Did you fly to or from London Gatwick Airport last year? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comment section.