In what has been a turbulent year for the aviation world, Gatwick has possibly suffered more than most airports. Open Skies, high fuel costs & the global economic downturn all conspired to decimate services from our local airport. Many airlines that were regular visitors to Gatwick can no longer be seen here.

Open Skies saw us lose American & Continental, with the last Northwest service to follow shortly, while Air Algerie, Central Wings, Fly Hello, German Wings, Tarom & Wizz Air all ceased operating to Gatwick & will be joined in 2009 by KD Avia & Oman Air. GB A/W was swallowed up by easyJet but worse was the large number of airlines that went out of business, including African Safari, European Air Charter, Flightline, Futura, Nationwide, Oasis Hong Kong, Sterling, XL A/W & Zoom along with its UK subsidiary. A lot of local people, including a number of list members, lost their jobs as a result of these closures & I would like to wish all those that have still to find new employment the very best of luck in 2009. 

On the plus side, we gained Cimber Air, Cubana began to operate its own aircraft once again, Aeromexico will start shortly & we may yet see African Alliance & Nas Air at Gatwick. The hub being set up by Aer Lingus is promising some interesting destinations &, if the rumours are true, the possibility in the longer term of more transatlantic flights. Viking will increase its presence with the expected programme of Kiss flights & Hamburg International may extend its series of charter flights. EasyJet continues its route expansion, Ryanair has added more destinations & Cimber Air is to start a Copenhagen service, so it's not all doom & gloom.

Next year should also see the airport under new ownership & it will be interesting to see who takes over & what changes are made. Competition between the three main London airports can, in my view, only be a good thing.

New types visiting during 2008 were the A380, B739, C-27J, Citation 510, CL605, Falcon 7X, Hawker 900XP & Il-96 & new country prefixes seen were UP- & 4O-. At the beginning of the year, I guessed that we would probably have around 600 first visits at Gatwick during 2008 & I am glad to say that we exceeded that with a final tally of 629. It may surprise you to learn that LHR had only 605 newcomers in 2007, though that was up to 804 this year as it inherited most of our common US aircraft, thanks to Open Skies. Interestingly, if you remove our old US airlines (Continental, Delta, Northwest & US A/W) from the LHR total, it takes it down to 631 - very comparable to Gatwick. The Gatwick newcomers total for 2008 breaks down as follows:

378 airliners
219 biz jets
 19 biz props/twins
 13 helicopters

Further breaking these down:
Airliners
117 B737 (including 6 BBJs)
 42 A320
 37 A319
 36 B757
 15 A321
 13 DHC-8
 11 B777
 10 A330, B747, EMB135 (including 8 Legacies), MD-80
  8 A340
  7 B767, EMB195, Fk100
  6 CRJ-200
  5 EMB145
  4 ATR72, BAe 146
  3 A310, Il-96
  2 CRJ-900, DC-10, Yak-42D
  1 A300, A380, An-12, An-26, ATR42, Beech 1900, C-27J

Biz jets
33 Ce525
23 CL600
19 Learjet, HS125
18 Ce560
15 DA2000, Gulf 4, Gulf 5
 9 DA900
 7 BD100, BD700
 6 Ce550
 5 Be400, DA50
 4 Ce650
 3 Ce510, Ce680, DA20
 2 Ce750, Galaxy, Premier
 1 Ce501, DA7X, Gulf 150, Sabreliner

Biz props/twins
10 King Air
 3 PC-12
 2 Avanti
 1 Cessna 421, PA-23, PA-34, Twin Star

Helicopters
4 A109
2 EC155
1 AS350, AS355, Bell 206, Enstrom, Gazelle, MD900, S-76

Looking at country prefixes, the newcomers came from the following:

133 G
 72 N
 48 D, EI
 30 CS
 22 EC
 19 LN
 18 OE
 17 A6
 16 HA
 14 SX
 12 VP-B
 11 F, HB
 10 OY
  9 LX, OO
  8 LZ, M
  7 YL
  6 A7, C, LY, SE, TC
  5 4O
  4 EW, P4, PH, UR
  3 9V, CU, ET, I, S5, SP, VP-C, VT
  2 5A, JY, OH, OK, OM, TF, YR
  1 3A, 3B, 4X, 9M, CN, ES, HS, HZ, UN, UP, VH, YU
Plus 6 military

Total first visits by month were:
Jan - 40 (25 liners, 14 biz, 1 other)
Feb - 73 (42 liners, 26 biz, 5 others)
Mar - 47 (29 liners, 16 biz, 2 others)
Apr - 66 (42 liners, 19 biz, 5 others)
May - 71 (46 liners, 24 biz, 1 other)
Jun - 61 (33 liners, 26 biz, 2 others)
Jly - 47 (26 liners, 19 biz, 2 others)
Aug - 37 (26 liners,  9 biz, 2 others)
Sep - 60 (38 liners, 15 biz, 7 others)
Oct - 45 (25 liners, 19 biz, 1 other)
Nov - 40 (21 liners, 16 biz, 3 others)
Dec - 42 (25 liners, 16 biz, 1 other)

As always, military visitors were in short supply & the only newcomers were:
01-0041 C-40B (BBJ) USAF
2115 B732 Brazilian A/F
4125 C-27J Greek A/F
A36-001 B737BBJ RAAF
T.18-4 DA900B Spanish A/F
XZ296 Gazelle AH1 AAC

Hoping that this was of some interest &, if you have read this far without falling asleep, award yourself a gold star.

 Happy spotting!
John (& "Mad" Max)