Skift Take
Traffic plunged 97 percent at the UK’s second busiest airport throughout the first half of the year, and Gatwick’s financial resources are a mess. Hence, the call for a reprieve to government leaders.
Tom Lowry
Britain’s Gatwick Airport urged the government to make international travel much easier after lockdown restrictions drove it to a first-half loss of 245 million pounds ($338 million) and required it to ask its banks for a short-lived reprieve.
Stringent COVID-19 guidelines during the 6 months to June 30 meant traveler numbers at Gatwick, typically Britain’s second busiest airport, plunged 97% from pre-pandemic levels.
The airport, whose bulk owner is France’s Vinci along with minority holder monetary financier Global Infrastructure Partners, said it remained in talks with its banks over a temporary waiver of its borrowing terms due to the extraordinary circumstances impacting air travel.
Larger competing Heathrow stated in July it had also looked for a waiver of a debt covenant.
Britain has actually been slower to resume travel than the rest of Europe in spite of its quick vaccination program, triggering heavy criticism from airports in addition to airlines like British Airways and easyJet.
Because July, the government has relaxed some guidelines however pricey COVID-19 tests for many destinations remain in location, and last minute rule changes have discouraged travel.
Gatwick stated Britain was falling behind its European next-door neighbors, with travel bookings at 16% of their pre-pandemic levels, whereas France and Germany had actually increased to about 50%.
“Our government requires to act now and remove unnecessary and costly PCR testing requirements for travelers, particularly for those double vaccinated,” Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said in a declaration on Friday.
Gatwick, which last year axed personnel and cut expenses to assist it make it through, stated it anticipated guest numbers to recover in the 2nd half of the year.
($1 = 0.7248 pounds)
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Sarah Young Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
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