Gatwick passenger numbers recover from volcano impact

Travellers took advantage of the closeness of several bank holidays in April last year

Gatwick Airport served 33.8 million passengers in the year to the end of March, a rise of more than two million on the previous year.

But Gatwick's owners said the previous year had been affected by the Icelandic volcano eruption, with about 600,000 people not travelling in April 2010.

It was also affected by industrial action at British Airways and heavy snowfall in November and December 2010.

Taking this into account, underlying traffic growth was estimated at 3%.

Gatwick Airport Limited said the eruption of a second volcano in Iceland in May 2011 had resulted in a less significant impact, and there were no significant periods of winter weather disruption in the year to March 2012.

It added that passenger numbers in April 2011 had increased as travellers "took advantage of the closeness of the Easter holiday weekend, the additional holiday to mark the royal wedding and the early May bank holiday".