London Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport began life in 1930 as the Surrey Aero Club, a small flyers club, used exclusively by flying enthusiasts – however it did not stay this way for long. Four years later Gatwick was licensed as a public aerodrome, intended to provide regular air services to Paris and act as a relief aerodrome for London Croydon Airport. In this year Gatwick also gained its first scheduled flights – Hillman’s Airways to Belfast and Paris.

The descendants of Hillman’s Airways still fly from Gatwick; though you might know them better as the company they later formed a part of – British Airways. Today, they have been joined by roughly 56 airlines flying to 228 destinations and carrying over 45 million passengers.

We’ve come a long way since the 30s. Take a look below to see the key points in our journey from private aerodrome to RAF base to the busiest single-runway airport in the world.

London Gatwick became an aerodrome back in the 1930s, but the airport we know today was officially opened on 9 June 1958 by Her Majesty The Queen. Over the last 60 years our airport has grown from just 186,000 passengers to over 46 million passengers in 2019. However, the global pandemic in 2020 saw international travel restricted and our passenger numbers fall to 10 million for the year.