GENERAL

The most significant news of 2016 was almost certainly the governmental decision to plump for a third runway at Heathrow. This was, of course, a disappointment for GIP, particularly as an extra runway at Gatwick could be delivered more quickly, more cheaply, and with fewer detrimental effects on the environment. It had been thought that both airports might be given the green light for expansion and GIP has indicated its intention to go ahead and seek government approval to build a second runway anyway. With a lengthy consultation period due to take place before construction could even start on another Heathrow runway and work not expected to be completed before 2027, there will doubtless be plenty of twists and turns before it is delivered, if it ever is. In the meantime, numerous pressure groups will raise their voices helping to swell the bank accounts of many in the legal profession.

GIP continues to work non-stop improving the airport infrastructure and a revamped Pier 5 was opened in February, followed by Pier 1 in May. The long-expected terminal swap is due to take place over the weekend of 24 and 25/01/17, with easyJet consolidating all its flights in the North Terminal. Virgin Atlantic will also move from the South to the North terminal, while British Airways will move in the opposite direction.

On 13Th June, easyJet opened its new maintenance hangar at Gatwick. This can take two A319/320 aircraft at a time and Lufthansa Technik was selected to undertake routine work. A further hangar that is due to appear, subject to planning permission, will be one for Boeing. This will be the largest hangar on the airfield and it seems that its primary purpose will be to provide maintenance facilities for Norwegian's growing fleet of B787s.

There has, once again, been a noticeable expansion of services from Gatwick and, despite terrorist activity in several countries (with Turkey particularly affected), each month continues to show a growth in passenger numbers compared to the same month the previous year. On the long-haul front, much of this has been driven by Norwegian and, to a lesser extent, British Airways, plus the commencement of the Tianjin flights and the return of Cathay Pacific. British Airways seems to be trying to take on Norwegian by competing on some routes, though I cannot see its intention to increase seating on the Gatwick-based B772s from 9 to 10 abreast making their offering particularly attractive to the travelling public. As regards short-haul, this has mainly been driven, as you would expect, by easyJet (which now serves 32 countries) and Norwegian, but also partially by Ryanair, who grabbed the old Aer Lingus slots that had to be released when that carrier was acquired by IAG.

We did better for new aircraft types in 2016, with no less than five appearing. New airliner types were the A320neo, with just one Pegasus example appearing so far, the A359, with one of AIB's test aircraft visiting to take the Bearded One to Farnborough before the influx of Cathay examples, a single Air Nostrum CRJ-1000 and a CityJet SSJ 100. The only new biz type was a NetJets Europe Citation 680A Latitude.

Finally, there was little disruption to normal airport operations this year, with the exception of holes appearing in the runway on a couple of occasions. At least there were no power cuts or floods and nothing worthy of mention from fog (apart from the last two days of the year!) or snow, though there is still plenty of winter weather to come.

AIRLINE GAINS & LOSSES

Happily, we gained more airlines than we lost during 2016. On the debit side, Caribbean Airlines left us in January, having failed to make a profit on the route, Heathrow poached Garuda from us at the end of March, while Fly Salone, who had been using an Icelandair B752, ceased trading the same month. Although not operating services to Gatwick, Open Skies had been sending its B752s to us for maintenance, but switched this work to Hahn in late January. The first welcome newcomers were WestJet and Rouge, who started in May in competition with Air Transat. The former carrier operated a very ambitious programme throughout the summer with B737s & B763s, followed by a much reduced winter offering. Sadly, their former Qantas B763s proved to be less than reliable & it has to be hoped that they are actively seeking wide-bodied replacements. Rouge operated a much smaller service & left us for the winter, though will return next summer. June saw Wizz Air return to us with a daily service from Bucharest and Tianjin Airlines, who began a service from their home city, initially using an A332 on lease from Hainan Airlines, prior to receiving its own aircraft. The final scheduled newcomers were returnees Cathay Pacific, back with us in September after a number of years and now operating A350s, and Aeroflot in November with a daily service from Moscow/Sheremetyevo.

Airlines operating seasonal services only were Austrian Airlines, Niki and Swiss International with winter ski flights and, during the summer months, we saw Adria Airways, Air Azores, BH Air, Croatia Airlines, Montenegro Airlines & Rouge. Enter Air, Germania and Small Planet Airlines all based an aircraft here and all three airlines continue to appear here regularly operating charters. Thomas Cook leased an A320 and A321 from Avion Express for the summer season.

Emirates managed to acquire slots for a fourth daily service from Dubai. This was to be operated by a B773 from the beginning of October, but the carrier cancelled the service shortly before it was due to start. With Gatwick operating to near capacity, particularly when it comes to prime time slots, various airlines have applied to operate to and from Gatwick, but have been left disappointed. Among these were Jet2, who wanted to operate a programme of flights, but had to settle for Stansted instead and Aeroflot, who had applied to operate a twice-daily summer service from Moscow. As it is flying a daily service throughout the winter, the latter airline should be at the front of the queue for slots next summer.

There have also been some equipment changes among our scheduled carriers. As expected, the Emirates flights became an all A380 operation from the beginning of the year, while Portugalia (renamed TAP Express) retired its E145/F100 fleets, replacing them with second-hand E190s from Azul. Iraqi Airways, who are still on the EU's banned list, continued operations with an Air Explore B738, before reaching an agreement with AtlasGlobal who now fly the UK routes with Iraqi registered A320s. Med-View, which continues to operate a remarkably reliable service, upgraded from a B763 to a B744 leased from Air Atlanta. Next year, we expect to see Air Baltic CS300s start to replace that carrier's ageing fleet of B733/735s.

What else can we expect during 2017? Quite honestly, it is mainly just rumours at present. Among the few certainties are that Ryanair will start a four times daily service from Belfast in March and Cathay Pacific will go daily from July. Rwandair is threatening to start in April and there have also been mutterings from Goldstar Airlines & United Airlines of Bangladesh. Other rumours include the return of Hong Kong Airlines and the appearance of various Chinese carriers. Time will tell..

AIRLINES AT GATWICK AT YEAR END

Scheduled carriers as at 31/12/16 were:

Aegean, Aer Lingus, Aeroflot, Air Arabia Maroc, Air Baltic, Air Europa, Air Malta, Air Transat, AtlasGlobal (for IAW), Aurigny
Belavia, British Airways
Cathay Pacific
easyJet, easyJet Switzerland, Emirates
Flybe
Iberia Express, Icelandair, Iraqi Airways
Med-View, Monarch
Norwegian Air International, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norwegian Air UK, Norwegian Long Haul
Pegasus
RAM, Ryanair
Swiss International (seasonal)
TAP, TAP Express, Thomas Cook, Thomson Airways, THY, Tianjin Airlines, Travel Service, Tunisair
Ukraine International
Virgin Atlantic, Vueling
WestJet, Wizz Air, Wow Air

Other carriers seen at Gatwick in 2016 included:

Adria, Air Berlin, Air Corsica, Air Explore, Air Nostrum, Air X Charter, Alba Star, Austrian Airlines, Avion Express
BA Cityflyer, BH Air, Blue Panorama, bmi Regional, Bulgaria Air
Cello Aviation, CityJet, CobaltAir, Corendon Dutch Airlines, Croatia Airlines, CSA
Danish Air Transport, Denim
Eastern A/W, Enter Air, Euro Atlantic Airways
Fly Salone, FreeBird
GainJet, Garuda, Germania, Go2Sky
Hainan Airlines, HiFly,
Iberia
Jet2, Jota Aviation
Limitless Airways, Lufthansa,
Meraj Air, Meridiana, Mistral Air, Montenegro Airlines
National Airlines, Niki, Nouvelair
Olympus Airways, Omni Air International, Open Skies, Orbest
PrivatAir Germany, Privilege Style
Rouge
Small Planet Airlines, Small Planet Airlines Polska, SmartLynx, Smartwings, Sun-Air,
Thomas Cook Scandinavia, Titan Airways, Trade Air, Transavia, Travel Service Hungary
VVB Aviation Malta
Wamos Air, White
The number of 'other carriers' has plummeted from 118 in 2013; 98 in 2014 and 79 in 2015 to a mere 66 last year reflecting the lack of spare slots and the dominance of the likes of easyJet and Norwegian.

NEW AIRLINERS

Twelve airlines reached double figures with first visits in 2016, the same number as in 2015

56 Ryanair
36 THY
33 Norwegian
28 Aeroflot
26 easyJet including 7 Swiss
19 Rouge
18 Wizz Air
17 Emirates
14 Vueling
12 WestJet
11 Pegasus
10 Thomas Cook including 4 Danish

Airliner first visits by manufacturer were:

Airbus

A310. None at all during the year
A319. Five Austrian Airlines, four easyJet Switzerland, two Vueling and one each from BH Air, CSA, Germania, Niki and Privatair plus a single A319CJfrom Global Jet Luxemburg
A320. Twenty five Aeroflot, twenty two easyJet including three Swiss, twelve Wizz Air, seven Vueling, five Aegean and Small PLanet Airlines including one Polish, four Niki and Pegasus, three Iraqi Airways, two Danish Air Transport and single examples from Aer Lingus, Air Arabia Maroc, Air Berlin, Air Corsica, AtllasGlobal, Austrian Airlines, Azores Airlines, BH Air, British Airways, CobaltAir, Limitless Airways, Monarch, SmartLynx, Swiss and THY.
A321. Thirteen THY, eight Thomas Cook including four Danish, six Wizz Air, five Vueling and Wow Air, three Lufthansa and Aeroflot plus single examples from Avion Express, BH Air, Condor, Iberia, Olympus Airways, Small Planet Polska and Titan Airways
A330. A noticeable increase over the seven seen the previous year with three each from Air Europa, Tianjin Airlines and Wow Air, two Air Transat and THY and single examples from Air Berlin, Orbest, SriLankan, an LHR diversion, and Thomas Cook along with a French Air Force machine which performed a low fly-by
A340. One from HiFly for Norwegian and one from Meraj Air operating for the Iranian government
A350. A new type for us in 2016 with eight from the returning Cathay Pacific and one from the Airbus test fleet
A380. Another seventeen from Emirates during the year

ATR

Four during the year, up from three in 2015, and all were ATR72s, comprising the latest one for Aurigny, a DOT LT machine operating for Aurigny plus two Danish Air Transport aircraft, one for Aurigny and one for FlyBe

BAe

Four 146/RJs this year, with a Jota Aviation machine flying for Aurigny, one CityJet, a Swiss one on diversion from LCY and one of the RAF examples from Northolt. No Jetstreams this year

Boeing

B737 classic. Just six this year, comprising B733s from Mistral Air (operating for Meridiana) and Belavia, B734s from Go2Sky and VVB Aviation Malta (on a Wow Air flight) and a pair of Air X Charter B735s
B737NG. Eight WestJet B737s, a single Travel Service B739 and a host of B738s as follows. Fifty-six Ryanair, twenty-seven Norwegian, twenty THY, eight Ukraine International, seven Pegasus, three Enter Air, two Air Europa, Meridiana and Travel Service (one Canadian registered) and singles from Air Explore (for Iraqi A/W), Belavia, Euro Atlantic Airways (for Monarch), Go2Sky (for Norwegian), SmartWings and Transavia
B747. Three in 2016 compared to two in 2015 and none in 2014. All were -400s, with two from Wamos Air (one of them for Thomas Cook and the other for Vueling) and Med-View's Icelandic registered machine
B757. Good to see one of my favourite airliners making a bit of a comeback, though doubtless only a temporary one. These were up from three in 2015 to seven in 2016, with four more Icelandair aircraft entering service, two National Airlines ones flying for Wow Air and TAG Aviation's VIP example
B767. A huge leap from four in 2015 to twenty-seven during the year, with Rouge being the major contributor with no less than nineteen examples appearing, supported by WestJet's four aircraft, a pair from Omni Air (one operating for WestJet, while the other was the only B762 we saw), and single aircraft from Blue Panorama (for Norwegian) and Meridiana
B777. With the Emirates services to Gatwick becoming an all A380 affair, the bottom really fell out of this type and all we saw in the way of newcomers was a single BA B773 on diversion from LHR
B787. Noticeably down from the fifteen seen the previous year, we played host to just eight, six of them from Norwegian, including their first four B789s, which are all based here, the latest Thomson Airways B789 and a Virgin example on diversion from LHR
C17A. One RAF machine

Bombardier

A new type for us from this manufacturer was the CRJX, with one example appearing from Air Nostrum. Other CRJs were an Adria CRJ7 and five executive CRJ8s. Just three new DH8Ds appeared, one each from Flybe, Luxair (LCY diversion) and the first Air Baltic one that we have seen at Gatwick (Exeter diversion)

Dornier

Just a single D328JET from Sun-Air

DOUGLAS/MCDD

Nothing at all from this manufacturer during 2016

Embraer

Not a single new Legacy in sight compared to five the previous year, but we did receive only our second Lineage. Single E145s turned up from Enhance Aero & Eastern Airways, while Portugalia's (now TAP Express) fleet renewal programme provided us with all nine of their E190s

Fokker

Just a single Austrian Airlines FK100 during 2016

Lockheed

Like the previous year, only a single Kuwait Air Force KC-130J

Saab

Nothing at all during the year

Sukhoi

A new manufacturer as well as a new type for us with a CityJet SSJ 100 visiting

GENERAL AVIATION

A new type for us in 2016 was the Citation 680A Latitude, but this didn't stop the number of GA visitors during the year dropping very significantly from 153 to 120 as follows, 103 biz jets down from 128, 7 biz props/twins, down from 14 and 10 helicopters, down from 11

FIRST VISITS

Despite a big drop in the number of GA visitors, the total number of first visits showed almost the smallest possible increase, up from 566 to just 569. This was despite the year-to-date totals each month lagging behind those of 2015 right up until December when, particularly thanks to Aeroflot and an unexpected influx of new biz jets, we just managed to creep past the finishing post!

2000 - 624 (364 liners, 199 biz, 27 twins, 31 helos, 3 others)
2001 - 532 (327 liners, 155 biz, 21 twins, 24 helos, 5 others)
2002 - 637 (414 liners, 168 biz, 22 twins, 26 helos, 7 others)
2003 - 598 (408 liners, 139 biz, 20 twins, 23 helos, 8 others)
2004 - 663 (474 liners, 144 biz, 18 twins, 18 helos, 9 others)
2005 - 690 (466 liners, 174 biz, 20 twins, 22 helos, 8 others)
2006 - 769 (516 liners, 209 biz, 21 twins, 19 helos, 4 others)
2007 - 702 (452 liners, 209 biz, 14 twins, 21 helos, 6 others)
2008 - 630 (379 liners, 219 biz, 16 twins, 13 helos, 3 others)
2009 - 606 (382 liners, 186 biz, 16 twins, 12 helos, 10 others)
2010 - 555 (350 liners, 172 biz, 21 twins, 5 helos, 7 others)
2011 - 613 (427 liners, 170 biz, 9 twins, 4 helos, 3 others)
2012 - 689 (496 liners, 168 biz, 10 twins, 10 helos, 5 others)
2013 - 608 (411 liners, 168 biz, 12 twins, 15 helos, 2 others)
2014 - 511 (351 liners, 133 biz, 7 twins, 16 helos, 4 others)
2015 - 565 (413 liners, 127 biz, 7 twins, 11 helos, 7 others)
2016 - 569 (449 liners, 103 biz, 5 twins, 10 helos, 2 others)

Of this year's newcomers, just 13 were diversions (19 in 2015, 23 in 2014 & 30 in 2013), with 4 from LCY, 3 from LHR. 2 each from Luton and Stansted plus single examples from Exeter and Farnborough. As regards airframes, 466 were new to the airport, while 103 had previously appeared here in some other guise.

Airliner breakdown
171 A320 (17 A319, 104 A320, 50 A321)
148 B737 (2 B733, 2 B734, 2 B735, 8 B737, 133 B738, 1 B739)
27 B766
18 A330
17 A380
13 E190
9 A350
8 B787
7 B757
5 CRJ8
4 AT72 BAe146
3 B747 DHC8
2 A340, E145
1 B777, C-17, C-130, CRJ7, CRJX, D328JET, F100, SSJ100
Types that appeared in 2015 but failed to feature in 2016 were the A310, AT42, D328, E135, E170, F50, JS41, MD80, Metro, S340 and S2000

Biz Jet breakdown
13 Lear
12 BD700, Gulf 5
10 Ce525
6 DA2000
5 BD100, CL600, Gulf 4, Phenom
4 Ce560, DA7X, DA900, Gulf 650
3 Ce550, Ce680
2 Be400, G200, HS125
1 Ce510, G280
Types missing from the 2015 list were the Ce750, DA50, G150 and Gulf 3.

Biz prop/twin breakdown
2 Be200, PC12
1 Avanti, Be90, Ce406
Down from 14 in 2015 to just 7 in 2016

Helicopter breakdown (overflights are NOT recorded/included by me)
6 A109
2 Bell 429
1 AS355, S76
The A109 holds the top spot for the third year running

By country prefix (including military)
92 EI
57 G
52 TC
35 C
30 VP-B/VQ-B
27 EC
23 N
20 D
19 OE
18 HA
17 A6, CS
16 9H
13 HB, TF
12 B, M, OY
9 F
8 UR
7 OK
6 SX
5 LX, LY, SP
4 LN, OM
3 LZ, XA, YI, YL
2 EW, I
1 CN, EP, OH, OO, PH, PP, Se, S5, VP-C, YU, 2, 4R, 5B, 9A, 9K
48 countries, the same as in 2015 compared to 51 in 2014 and 52 in 2013. This is the first time in the eight years that I have been producing the annual review that the UK has not held first place

By manufacturer (2015 figures in brackets):
217 Airbus (205)
194 Boeing (168)
45 Bombardier (55)
24 Gulfstream (27)
22 Cessna (31)
20 Embraer (18)
14 Dassault (14)
7 Hawker/Beechcraft (66)
Plus 26 from assorted other manufacturers (41)

Total first visits in 2016 by month
Jan 39 (23 liners, 16 biz, 0 others)
Feb 48 (42 liners, 5 biz, 1 others)
Mar 41 (29 liners, 10 biz, 2 others)
Apr 49 (43 liners, 6 biz, 0 others)
May 75 (61 liners, 12 biz, 2 others)
Jun 56 (48 liners, 5 biz, 3 others)
Jly 51 (44 liners, 4 biz, 3 others)
Aug 26 (24 liners, 2 biz, 0 others)
Sep 38 (27 liners, 8 biz, 3 others)
Oct 37 (29 liners, 7 biz, 1 others)
Nov 51 (39 liners, 11 biz, 1 others)
Dec 58 (40 liners, 17 biz, 1 others)

Military & government newcomers (the same number as in 2014 and 2016)
KAF326 KC-130J Kuwait Air Force, 41 Sqdn
TC-DAP Gulfstream 550 Government of Turkey, Basbakanligi
XC-LMF Gulfstream 450 Mexican Navy, ESCAAM
ZE708 BAe146 C3 RAF, 32 Sqdn
ZZ174 C-17A RAF, 99 Sqdn
240 A332 French Air Force, ET60 'FRARF' low fly-by only
91-003 Gulfstream 4 Turkish Air Force, 212 Filo

AND FINALLY

Thanks Thanks to all who have contributed to the roundup and the Gatwick mailing list during the past 12 months, making this probably the best-reported airport in the country.

John (& Mad Max)