GENERAL

Probably the most significant news of 2017 was the sad demise of Monarch Airlines. An ever-present sight at Gatwick for nigh on 50 years, its collapse was the largest airline failure ever in the UK. Formed by two former British Eagle directors, the airline began operations from Luton with a pair of former BCAL Britannias, mainly flying charters to Europe. A further five former British Eagle Britannias were to join the fleet before, in 1971, the company moved into the jet age with the purchase of a trio of B720Bs from Northwest. The addition of B707s and BAC 111s were soon to see the carrier become an all-jet operation before Monarch standardised on the B737 for short-haul operations, the B757 for medium-haul and the B767 for long-haul, alongside a quartet of A300s. In a switch of manufacturer, the B737s were gradually replaced by A320 family aircraft, while A330s were added for long-haul operations. At various times, the carrier also considered the MD-11 and B788, but no examples of either type entered service. In 2016 Monarch placed an order with Boeing for 45 B738MAX aircraft to replace its A320/321s, but then suffered major financial difficulties and ceased trading at the beginning of October this year. The CAA was prepared for this eventuality and the subsequent series of repatriation flights, dubbed the largest peacetime airlift in history, involved no less than 28 airlines operating 68 different aircraft, many of which visited Gatwick, which was also the base for six of the Qatar Airways A320s involved. The majority of the fleet has still to find new operators but, after a legal wrangle, the Gatwick slots were sold to IAG. To me, this was a major disappointment, as British Airways and the likes of easyJet and Norwegian already hold far too high a percentage of the slots, leaving little or no room for new carriers. Norwegian also grabbed another 28 weekly slots, purchasing them from Small Planet Airlines and will reportedly use them to expand its long-haul services further.

Brexit is beginning to have an effect on UK airline operations. With doubts being voiced over whether airlines will continue to enjoy the same traffic rights to and from Europe that they have today, some carriers have decided to set up subsidiaries in other countries. Most notable to date has been easyJet, who have obtained an Austrian AOC. So far, the carrier has transferred 27 aircraft to the Austrian register, with plenty more to follow in 2018. With the demise of Air Berlin, easyJet Europe is also to take up to 25 aircraft of the former carrier and some of these have already been transferred from the German to the Austrian register. Wizz Air is obtaining a UK AOC to ensure continued operations and SAS has set up an Irish subsidiary.

On the infrastructure side, the terminal swap eventually took place in January and planning permission was granted in October for the Boeing hangar, with work due to be completed during 1Q19. GIP also announced its intention to add a third A380 stand and still seem determined to go ahead with the construction of a second runway once the current agreement with West Sussex County Council runs out in a couple of years time.

Passenger traffic has continued to increase month on month, with much of the expansion among long-haul services, with Norwegian, in particular, continually adding new destinations. British Airways is to add further US flights, while the arrival of China Airlines and Rwandair and Tianjin Airlines recent announcement of flights from Xian in 2018 will swell the long-haul passenger numbers even further. Several other carriers have also expressed interest in starting services to Gatwick from far-flung corners of the globe as soon as suitable slots are available.

New aircraft types or sub-types were far more prevalent this year, with eleven, compared to just five in 2016. The heavies were the A321neo, A400M, B738MAX, CS100 and CS300. Biz types were the Citation 525M2, Challenger 650 and Embraer 550, while smaller types were the Diamond DA62, the TBM900 and the turbo version of the venerable Malibu, the PA-46TP. New types come, but old types also go and a prime example is the MD80. Meridiana was the only scheduled operator of the type to Gatwick during the year, but retired its last one at the end of the summer season. While we may still the occasional Danish Air Transport example on a charter or, if we are really lucky, one from the likes of Bulgarian Air Charter, that is one type gone from our airport for ever. Another type that may well disappear by the end of 2018 is the A310. Air Transat is the sole scheduled carrier still operating the type to Gatwick and as the airline adds further A330s to its fleet, its days must surely be numbered.

As regards 2018, my crystal ball shows little so far. Norwegian will continue to expand its long-haul services from Gatwick and Tianjin Airlines will begin a service from Xian. Due to problems with its B787 engines, Virgin Atlantic is to lease four former Air Berlin A332s and two of these will be Gatwick based to operate Caribbean routes. Finally, as of today, Aeroflot has decided to switch from A320/321s to B738s on the daily Sheremetyevo run for the winter schedule at least.

AIRLINE GAINS & LOSSES

Unusually, with the notable exception of Monarch, we lost no airlines last year, but gained five. Two of these were long-haul carriers, with RwandAir starting services from Kigali with single examples of the A332 & A333 & China Airlines starting from Taipei during December. The latter carrier has been a disappointment so far using the same three A350s on all flights to date. From closer to home, CobaltAir operate regular schedules from Larnaca with A319/320s & Georgian Airways appears regularly from Tbilisi with B737s & E190s. Finally, after an absence of several years, Finnair is back using A320/321s on skiing flights from Ivalo & Kittila.

Airlines operating seasonal services only were Austrian Airlines, Niki & Swiss International with winter ski flights and, during the summer months, we saw Azores Airlines, BH Air, Croatia Airlines, Montenegro Airlines, Pegasus & Rouge. Enter Air, Germania and Small Planet Airlines all based an aircraft here and all three airlines continue to appear here regularly operating charters. SmartLynx succeeded in leasing a number of aircraft to UK airlines, with five operating out of Gatwick for the summer, placing two A320s with easyJet, one A320 with Monarch and an A320 and A321 with Thomas Cook.

AIRLINES AT GATWICK AT YEAR END

Scheduled carriers as at 31/12/17 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, China Airlines, CobaltAir
easyJet, easyJet Europe, easyJet Switzerland, Emirates
Finnair (seasonal), Flybe
Georgian Airways, Germania
Iberia Express, Icelandair, Iraqi Airways
Med-View
Norwegian Air International, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norwegian Air UK, Norwegian Long Haul
RAM, RwandAir, Ryanair
Swiss International (seasonal)
TAP, TAP Express, Thomas Cook, THY, Tianjin Airlines, Titan Airways, Travel Service, TUI Airways, Tunisair
Ukraine International
Virgin Atlantic, Vueling
WestJet, Wizz Air, Wow Air

Other carriers seen at Gatwick in 2017 included:

Adria Airways Switzerlan, Aigle Azur, Air Mediterranean, Air X Charter, Alba Star, Austrian Airlines, Avion Express, Azores Airlines
BA Cityflyer, BH Air, Blue Air, Blue Islands bmi Regional, Braathens Regional, Bulgaria Air, Bulgarian Eagle
Carpatair, Cello Aviation, CityJet, Condor, Croatia Airlines
Danish Air Transport
Ellinair, Enter Air, Euro Atlantic Airways, Evelop Airlines
FreeBird
GetJet Airlines, Go2Sky
HiFly, HiFly Malta
Jet Time, JOTA Aviation
Lufthansa, Luxair
Meridiana, Miami Air, Monarch, Montenegro Airlines
Neos, Niki
Orange2fly,
Pegasus, Philippine Airlines, Privilege Style
SiAvia, Small Planet Airlines, Small Planet Airlines Germany, Small Planet Airlines Polska, SmartLynx, SmartLynx Estonia, Sun-Air of Scandinavia, Sun Express Germany
Thomas Cook Belgium, Thomson Airways, Travel Service Hungary, TUI Airlines Belgium
Volga-Dnepr
Wamos Air
Xtra Airways

Despite some unusual airlines appearing on Monarch repatriation flights, the easyJet/Norwegian stranglehold continued to adversely affect the number of other carriers that visit us. In 2013, we saw 118 of them, in 2014 it was 98, in 2015 it was 79, in 2016 it was 66, while 2017 yielded 64.

NEW AIRLINERS

51 Ryanair
45 easyJet (including 1 Swiss and 24 Austrian
36 Aeroflot
35 Norwegian
27 THY
16 Emirates
13 Cathay Pacific
11 Wizz Air

Just eight airlines made it in to double figures with first visits in 2017 compared to twelve in 2015 and 2016

Airliner first visits by manufacturer were:

Airbus

A319. Four easyJet Europe, three Germania and single examples from Atlas Atlantique, Austrian Airlines, CobaltAir & Ellinair
A320. Forty-three easyJet (including twenty Austrian, four neos and one Swiss), fifteen Aeroflot, seven Qatar Airways, six Wizz Air, five SmartLynx (including one Estonian), three Air Arabia Maroc and CobaltAir, two from each of Aer Lingus, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Thomas Cook Belgium and Vueling, plus single examples from Aigle Azur, Air Malta, Danish Air Transport, Monarch, Orange2fly (Smartwings scheme), TAP and Wow Air (neo). Also, an A320CJ belonging to the Sharjah Rulers Flight
A321. Twenty Aeroflot, five Vueling and Wizz Air, four Niki and Wow Air (including one neo), three Finnair, two Small Planet Polska and THY plus single examples from Aegean, Condor, Germania and Iberia Express
A330. A big increase, chiefly thanks to THY, who provided a total of twenty-five. The remainder were pairs from Air Transat, RwandAir, Tianjin Airlines and Wamos Air, plus single examples from Evelop, Jet2, SAA and Thomas Cook
A340. A fast disappearing type, though one more than in 2016, with single examples from HiFly Malta, Lufthansa and Philippine Airlines (LHR diversion)
A350. Twice as many as in 2016, with thirteen from Cathay Pacific and a trio from China Airlines
A380. Well down on the previous year, with just nine Emirates and an Etihad example on diversion from LHR
A400. A new type for us with a single RAF example appearing

ATR

Three in 2017 compared to four in 2016. Two were ATR42s from Blue Islands and Danish Air Transport and the third was a Braathens Regional ATR72

BAe

Five 146s/RJs appeared during the year, one more than in 2016. Of these, three were from CityJet (two on diversion from LCY), while the other two were from Jota Aviation and the RAF

Boeing

B737 classic. An increase this year from six to nine examples, comprising single B733s from Cello Aviation and Jet2, one B734 from Air Horizont and pairs from Air Mediterranean, Blue Air (Luton diversions) and GetJet

B737NG. Three B737s from Georgian Airways and one from JetTime plus 109 B738s, including our first (and so far only) B738MAX, comprising fifty-one Ryanair, twenty-three Norwegian, six Enter Air and Ukraine International, four Smartwings/Travel Service, three Air Europa and Belavia, two Jet2, Sun Express Germany and Thomson Airways along with single examples from Aeroflot, Blue Panorama, Go2Sky, Miami Air, RAM and Xtra Airways, plus a Saudi BBJ2

B747. Down from three in 2016 to just two, both Wamos Air B744s

B757. Five of these during the year, comprising the first Aer Lingus B752 to visit us, plus four Condor B753s, three of which carried UK registrations but retained their Condor titles

B767. After the bumper haul in 2016 of twenty-seven machines, it was back to normality in 2017 with nine examples of which four were from Rouge, three from Icelandair and one each from Condor and TUI Airways Belgium

B777. Very slightly up from eight to nine in 2017, mainly thanks to some additional Emirates flights. Two were B772s, one from Privilege Style (subbing for Norwegian) and the other from British Airways (LHR diversion). The remaining seven were all Emirates B773s

B787. A reasonable increase on 2016 though the majority, as you would suspect, were from Norwegian, who provided twelve examples (nine UK registered and three Norwegian). Bringing up the rear were one each from British Airways and Thomson Airways

C-17A.A single machine from the Qatar Air Force

Bombardier

Making a very welcome change from A320s and B737s was the appearance of our first CSeries aircraft. So far, we have seen a pair of CS100s from Swiss and ten CS300s (three Swiss and seven Air Baltic). Other Bombardier types were virtually non-existent, with just a Maltese CRJ-850 and a Luxair DHC-8 (LCY diversion) making their debuts.

Dornier

A pair of D328JETs from Sun-Air.

Embraer

Third most numerous aircraft manufacturer after the big two as far as 2017 was concerned. We ended up seeing another pair of EMB135BJs, a couple of French EMB145s, an Eastern EMB170, six EMB190s (two Georgian Airways, two RAM and one each from Lufthansa Cityline and Bulgaria Air) and three TAP Express EMB195s

Fokker

Nothing at all from this manufacturer.

Ilyushin

Made a very welcome return with a single Il-76-90 from Volga-Dnepr transporting a new engine for a sick WestJet B763.

Lockheed

Nothing at all from this manufacturer

Saab

Nothing at all during the year

SUKHOI

The same as last year, just a single CityJet Su-95

It is a sad fact that a mere 40 (less than 10 per cent) of the total number of new airliners were from companies other than Airbus or Boeing. Oh, for more variety.....

GENERAL AVIATION

As mentioned earlier, the Citation 525M2, Challenger 650 & Embraer 550, were all new biz types for us, with the Diamond DA62, PA-46TP and TBM900 also making their debuts. However, the number of GA visitors continued to drop from 120 in 2016 to 103 in 2017, with biz jets down from 103 to 86 and helicopters from 10 to 8, though the number of biz props/twins rose slightly from 7 to 9.

FIRST VISITS BY YEAR

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)
2017 - 532 (429 liners, 86 biz, 3 twins, 8 helos, 6 others)

In line with the continuing drop in the number of GA visitors, the annual total was down from 2016 by 37, from 569 to 532.

Of the 2017 newcomers, 25 were diversions (13 in 2016, 19 in 2015, 23 in 2014 and 30 in 2013), with 8 from Luton, 5 from LCY, 4 from LHR, 2 from each of Biggin Hill, Manchester and Stansted plus single examples from Denham and Farnborough. As regards airframes, 426 were new to the airport, while 106 had previously appeared here in some other guise.

Airliner breakdown
160 A320 (5 A20N, 1 A21N, 11 A319, 95 A320, 48 A321)
122 B737 (1 B38M, 2 B733, 7 B734, 4 B737, 108 B738)
37 A330
16 A350
14 B787
12 Cseries (2 CS100, 10 CS300)
10 A380
9 B767, B777, E190/195
5 B757, BAe146
3 A340
2 AT42, B747, D328JET, E135, E145
1 A400 AT72, C17, CRJ8, DHC8, E170, Il76, Su95
Types that appeared in 2016, but failed to feature in 2017 were the B735, C130, CRJ7, CRJX and Fk100

Biz Jet breakdown
9 CL600/650
8 BD100, Ce560
7 BD700, Gulf 4
6 Ce525
4 Ce510, DA7X, Gulf 5, Learjet
3 Be400, DA2000
2 Ce680, G200, G280
1 Ce500, Ce650, Ce750, DA900, EMB550, Gulf 650, HA4000
Types missing from the 2016 list were the Ce550, and HS125. The Challenger took back first place from the Learjet

Biz prop/twin breakdown
4 PC-12
1 DA62, Merlin, PA31, PA46, TBM900
Up from 7 in 2016

Helicopter breakdown (overflights are NOT recorded/included by me)
5 A109
1 EC135, Puma, Sea King
Down from 10 in 2016. The A109 retains top spot for the fourth year running

By country prefix (including military)
82 EI
73 G
39 VP-B/VQ-B
36 OE
29 TC
20 D
19 B
18 A6, EC
15 N
14 CS
12 HA
11 YL
10 HB, 9H
9 A7, SP
8 TF
7 C, F, OY
6 CN, OK, SX, UR
5 LX, OO, 4L
4 LN, M, 5B
3 EW, LY, OH
2 T7, YR, 9XR
1 ES, HZ, I, LZ, OM, PP/PR/PT, RA, RP, SE, VP-C, ZS, 2, 4X
50 countries, up 2 on 2016, with Ireland and the UK retaining the top two spots and Turkey slipping from third to fifth

By manufacturer (2016 figures in brackets):
227 Airbus (217)
160 Boeing (194)
42 Bombardier (45)
23 Cessna (22)
21 Embraer (20)
16 Gulfstream (24)
8 Dassault (14)
4 Hawker/Beechcraft (7)
Plus 30 from assorted other manufacturers (26)

Total first visits in 2015 by month
Jan 37 (29 liners, 6 biz, 2 others)
Feb 44 (33 liners, 10 biz, 1 others)
Mar 50 (38 liners, 9 biz, 3 others)
Apr 58 (46 liners, 11 biz, 1 others)
May 55 (44 liners, 10 biz, 1 others)
Jun 35 (29 liners, 5 biz, 1 others)
Jly 34 (28 liners, 6 biz, 0 others)
Aug 30 (29 liners, 1 biz, 0 others)
Sep 32 (23 liners, 8 biz, 1 others)
Oct 43 (37 liners, 4 biz, 2 others)
Nov 48 (35 liners, 9 biz, 4 others)
Dec 66 (57 liners, 8 biz, 1 others)

Military & government newcomers (two more than in each of the three previous years)
MAC C-17A Qatar Air Force 12Sqdn
A6-SHJ A320CJ Sharjah Rulers Flight
TC-GAP Gulfstream 450 Government of Turkey
GZ100 A109SP RAF 32Sqdn
ZA312 Sea King HC4 RN (night stopped on the back of a lorry)
ZA936 Puma HC2 RAF 33/230 Sqdns
ZE707 BAe146 C3 RAF 32 Sqdn
ZM406 A400M RAF 70 Sqdn
95-00123 UC-35A US Army 214 Avn Regt

AND FINALLY

On a personal note, it was a sad day for me, and probably for others as well, when the last ever copy of the Gatwick Aviation Society magazine "Hawkeye" dropped through my letterbox. Having been involved at the beginning 50 years ago and at the end, it was a real shame to see this disappear into history. However, the Society moves onwards through the website, the annual convention at K2, Crawley and the slide shows. Congratulations and thanks to all involved and in particular to Bernie King, whose idea it was to produce a magazine in the first place and who has been the society Chairman from day one right up until the present day.

Thanks to the many 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)