As we enter February, UK-based low-cost carrier easyJet has begun the month in style by reaching a special anniversary. Today marks 20 years since the opening of its base at London Gatwick (LGW), a story that began with a scheduled service to Barcelona.
Two decades of service
Today, easyJet has a presence at three of London’s six primary commercial airports: Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted. Services to and from the fourth, namely Southend, will resume in May. Despite being the largest and busiest of these, Gatwick wasn’t easyJet’s first London base. This honor, of course, fell to Luton, where easyJet’s headquarters remain today.
Nonetheless, the early 2000s marked a key period of expansion of the orange-clad budget airline. Not only did this period herald easyJet’s acquisition of Go Fly, but also the opening of a new base at London Gatwick Airport. This took place 20 years ago today.
easyJet’s first flight from the base on February 1st, 2002 was a Boeing 737-operated service to Barcelona. It had previously served the Gatwick, but only on flights originating at other bases in Europe. Other early routes from easyJet’s Gatwick base included Edinburgh, Malaga, Palma, and Zürich. 20 years on, it will base 79 aircraft at Gatwick this summer.
Now a key airline at Gatwick
easyJet continues to fly from Gatwick to Barcelona today. According to RadarBox.com, it does so five days a week, and today’s iteration of flight 8569 to Barcelona was operated by an easyJet Europe Airbus A319 registered as OE-LQE. The 137 passengers onboard the first flight 20 years ago today were the first of 200 million served by its Gatwick base to date.
20 years and 200 million passengers later…happy birthday to our base at @Gatwick_Airport 🥳 pic.twitter.com/lWCiEzZ18d
— easyJet (@easyJet) February 1, 2022
In the two decades that have followed since the launch of easyJet’s Gatwick base, it has become the largest carrier at London’s second-busiest airport. Similarly, Gatwick is also easyJet’s largest base, and it served 19 million of the airline’s passengers in 2019. As part of a statement marking the anniversary, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, Ali Gayward, said:
“We remain focussed on growth at Gatwick. We recently added over a million extra seats from the airport for next summer and new routes such as our new flights to Krk off the coast of Croatia, continuing to provide passengers with an ever-greater range of destinations.”
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The home of easyJet’s first lounge
While easyJet is an established name not only in the UK but all over Europe, it continues to innovate and adapt to the changing market. This has been particularly important amid the uncertainty of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the last two years. For example, it moved quickly to gain extra slots there following Norwegian’s withdrawal last year.
In October, easyJet also chose Gatwick as the location for its first-ever airport lounge. Known as the Gateway, this facility targets both business and leisure travelers, representing the wide demographic that easyJet serves. Customers can book visits here for up to three hours, with the value for money rising as the length of the stay increases.
Have you ever flown with easyJet from its Gatwick base? Do you have any particular memories from such trips? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
