easyJet launched their first flight between London Gatwick and Barcelona on February 1st, 2002, and today celebrated the 20th anniversary of the base. Over the last two decades, the carrier has carried over 200 million customers to and from the airport.
On Tuesday (February 1, 2022), easyJet announced the celebration of their 20th anniversary of their base at London Gatwick Airport. The carrier’s first flight from London Gatwick took place on February 1st, 2002, and the airline has since carried over 200 million customers to and from the airport. Over the last two decades, easyJet has become Gatwick’s largest airline, and for summer 2022, will operate 79 aircraft from the base, offering 1.1 million extra seats and new routes, including service to Rijeka on the Island of Krk in Croatia.
easyJet’s Gatwick operation started with a single based aircraft and just a few routes. In February 2002, inaugural service to Barcelona was shortly followed by new routes to Edinburgh, Zurich, Malaga and Palma. Previously, easyJet only operated from bases in Geneva, Nice and Amsterdam. For summer 2022, easyJet will offer service from Gatwick on over 120 routes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
In Tuesday’s announcement, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, Ali Gayward, said,
“easyJet is delighted to be celebrating 20 years at our London Gatwick base, our largest base in the network. Over the last two decades we have remained committed to providing even more choice for our customers travelling to and from the airport, growing our operation to become Gatwick’s largest airline.
“And we remain focused 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 all with a convenient schedule, low fares and great service for both leisure and business travellers.
“Now is a great time to book with easyJet. We are excited about our plans at Gatwick for next summer, and we can’t wait to welcome more customers back onboard.”
Also commenting on easyJet’s 20th anniversary at the airport, Gatwick Airport’s Vice President of Airline development, Stephanie Wear, said
“easyJet and Gatwick have grown together over the last 20 years and, since that first flight to Barcelona, we have helped millions of passengers go on holiday, visit friends and family or take an important business trip. The events of the last two years make today’s 20th anniversary of easyJet at Gatwick even more poignant and it feels fantastic that together we can once again offer our passengers the opportunity to enjoy the delights of so many destinations across Europe and beyond.”
easyJet’s inaugural flight from London Gatwick to Barcelona, EZY813, was the very first flight operated by a Gatwick-based flights crew on a Boeing 737. The February 1st, 2002, flight departed Gatwick at 11:15 with 137 guests onboard. easyJet now operates an all-Airbus A320 and A320neo Family fleet. The airline also introduced their first A321neo to their fleet in 2018, which was also based at Gatwick. During 2019, easyJet carried around 19 million passengers to and from Gatwick, and continues to grow.
easyJet carries nearly 100 million passengers annually on around 1,000 routes to over 150 airports in 35 countries. The airline has a fleet of over 300 aircraft and over 300 million Europeans live within an hour’s drive of an airport served by easyJet. The 25 plus year old low-cost carrier is dedicated to innovation and leads the industry in digital, web, engineering and operational efficiencies. easyJet was named “Britain’s Most Admired Company” in the transport sector for 2020, based on the longest running annual corporate reputation study in the UK.
Source: easyJet