London Gatwick: Interim financial results show airport is ‘thriving’ – despite Middle East conflict hitting passenger count

London Gatwick announced a solid operational and financial performance for the first half of 2026.

Gatwick’s revenue grew 4.8 per cent to £515.2 million, while the airport’s EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) increased by 5.5 per cent to £276.5 million.

But passenger numbers were impacted by the conflict in the Middle East. The number of passengers dropped 4.7 per cent to 19.1 million, which Gatwick said was primarily driven by the geopolitical situation in the region.

Jim Butler, London Gatwick’s chief financial officer, said: “The results show that despite the Middle East situation – which obviously is tough and we hope it resolves as soon as possible, not least for the people who are directly impacted – the team have done a fantastic job.

“While we saw traffic come down, revenue is up because we saw a buoyant number of new airlines come and bring new types of passengers to the airport.

“The investments we have made in the airport, especially in our departure lounges, have really engaged our passengers as they are heading off to their flights. We’ve found them more engaged with the various new retail outlets that we’ve put there.

“On the car parking side, we’re really, really pleased with how the new mid-stay car park in the Northern Terminal is doing. We opened a 3,200-space, new product that allows passengers to walk to the terminal, and that’s been doing incredibly well.

“And then on the cost side, we saw an increase in our costs, about four per cent. Some of that had to do with business rates. We need an investable business as we look to grow.

“But overall, in this environment, an EBITDA increase of over five per cent is very pleasing, and the team have done a fantastic job.”

London Gatwick chief executive Pierre-Hugues Schmit added: “As Jim said, we were caught a bit by surprise by the situation in the Middle East. We had planned for a very strong year with the new airlines that we had secured at the end of 2025.

“This was meant to be a great story – Jet 2, the German carriers, Air France – and we were really ecstatic about that. But it got overshadowed a little bit by the situation in the Middle East.

“In this environment, we have done well and protected the financial performance.

“On the results itself, I think we’re demonstrating that the business is capable of thriving in this challenging environment. We have a diverse list of carriers, so we are fairly pleased with the solid outcome from the first half of the year.”