GARY NOAKES TALKS TO GATWICK AIRPORT’S CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER, GUY STEPHENSON
GATWICK’S SUMMER RUSH normally means its marketing and commercial team can take a step back, job done. Not this year, however, 12 months
before Sir Howard Davies’ Airports Commission delivers its verdict on the South East’s airport expansion. Davies has already spoken, whittling it down to three options: a third runway at Heathrow; a second at Gatwick; or an extension of Heathrow’s northern runway to enable it to operate as two runways. The finalists must continue lobbying – so no rest this summer for Gatwick airport’s team and its chief commercial officer, Guy Stephenson. Gatwick has a mountain to climb in the face of overwhelming support from the business travel community for Heathrow, so is stepping up its campaign. In brief, Gatwick’s plans for a second runway include a third terminal, plus a new transport interchange, enabling passenger numbers to grow to 95 million by 2050. There seems little argument that Gatwick’s expansion would benefit the budget and leisure traveller, but what about the corporate flier? Stephenson says the notion that a redeveloped Gatwick would not be good for business travel- lers is “fanciful”. London, like New York, he argues, is an “Alpha++ city” because of its highly advanced integration with the global economy; and like New York – and Beijing – a ‘constellation’ of airports is needed to serve London, not just one main hub, and Heathrow would not be disadvantaged because of this. “This is not an ‘either/or’ situation. If Gatwick gets a second runway, Heathrow would continue to perform its function, which is largely hub activities, particularly on behalf of its based airline,” he says.
24 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2014
GUY STEPHENSON has an MBA with distinction from Imperial College London, and a BA (Hons) from Durham University.
He began his career in investment banking, dealing with aircraft financing, and advising governments and public sector clients on airport and air traffic control privatisation, and restructuring.
He spent five years with the TUI Group as commercial director of Thomsonfly.
Guy then became commercial director of the coach division at National Express Ltd before being appointed as Gatwick Airport Ltd’s chief commercial officer in November 2010.
Gatwick’s proponents argue that in the time it takes to get a third runway at Heathrow, this demand could diminish further as the Middle East carriers begin flying these routes instead. A new runway at either airport will take until 2025 to become operational. By then, the Gulf carriers will have a combined 1,100 more aircraft, and Easyjet and Norwegian (two big Gatwick users), plus Ryanair, almost 500 more. BA has fewer than 90 on order. “The order books tell you the supply
WAITING GAME Overcoming the government’s traditional bias towards the main hub and its home airline, British Airways, is a challenge, but perhaps not as much as in the past. BA is less expansionist and the geography of air travel has shifted east. BA acquired around 56 Heathrow slot pairs when it bought Bmi, but it has resorted to using them with fillers such as Mykonos and Santorini. These routes are an inefficient use of some of the world’s most expensive runway space, but proof that BA is playing a waiting game, according to Stephenson. “BA will continue to develop routes to emerging economies,” he claims. “It is choosing not to at the moment, not because there is not enough capacity, but because there’s not enough demand from the UK.”
side is away-based carriers and low-cost,” Stephenson says. It is these airlines and others, particularly from Asia, that Gatwick believes makes its own case for a second runway entirely sound, as demand for London’s Alpha++ status grows. “It’s not just about BA developing long-haul ser- vices from Gatwick or UK-centric activity; the majority of growth will come from ‘away-based’ carriers that do not need con- nectivity from the UK. Most of these have fewer than 10 per cent transfer passengers.” Around 6-7 per cent of Gatwick travel-
lers transfer flights, compared with 37 per cent at Heathrow, whose transfer traffic will surely increase now that the alliances more or less have their own terminals. This is a big argument against expanding Gatwick, where business travellers amount to around 20 per cent of all passengers, against Heathrow’s 30 per cent. “We’re not necessarily predicting any alliance is going to move, but we do have the UK’s largest short-haul network,” Stephenson says. Gatwick Connect, an airside bag drop for passengers with onward flights that do not interline, is already running. Although regular cor- porate travellers might consider it clumsy, it is planned to offer this option in global
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92