Aer Lingus sets up Gatwick airport base

[December 19th 2008]

Irish airline Aer Lingus is setting up a new base at Gatwick airport and offering new flights to popular sun and city break destinations.

Daily Aer Lingus flights from Gatwick will start in April to Malaga, Faro, Nice, Vienna, Munich, Zurich and Knock in Ireland. The first flights, to Malaga and Knock, commence on April 6th, followed on April 20th by flights to Munich, Vienna and Nice, with the last two routes to Zurich and Faro starting on April 26th. One way fares including taxes and charges start from £19.99.

Aer Lingus is expected to base four planes at Gatwick and the move will create 120 new jobs. This is some much needed good news for Gatwick, which has seen a number of flights relocated to Heathrow and has lost airline customers including XL Airways and Zoom.

For Aer Lingus the decision to set up a new base at Gatwick shows the airline's determination to fight off a takeover bid by fellow Irish airline Ryanair. Ryanair also operates flights from Gatwick to destinations such as Alicante, Barcelona Girona, Dublin, Shannon and Cork.

Gatwick is now gearing up for a busy Christmas and New Year period. More than one million passengers are expected to travel through the airport between today and January 1st. Gatwick says December 27th and 28th will be the busiest days at the airport with about 106,000 people expected to fly in and out on both days.

The top 10 destinations from Gatwick this Christmas have been named as Dublin, Geneva, Orlando, Tenerife, Malaga, Madrid, Edinburgh, Barbados, Amsterdam and Dubai.

The Gatwick Express will be running a revised timetable throughout the Christmas and New Year period to allow for essential engineering works by Network Rail.

Security team leader at Gatwick airport, Fiona Carleton, has this advice for passengers: “Restrictions apply to all liquids – including Christmas presents – and I strongly encourage passengers to come prepared so that our operational staff can provide the best possible service to all our passengers and ensure their holidays get off to a flying start”.

Written by: Nick Purdom

Save up to 60% and book your Gatwick Airport parking at an unbeatable price with Holiday Extras