Gatwick to welcome 10 new routes for summer 2019

New connections span Spain, the US, Croatia, Italy, Brazil, Poland, Moldova and Romania.

Certain established routes will also gain frequency over the coming months.

These include Algeria, Bilbao, Jerez and Alicante in Spain, as well as Antalya, Kos and Budapest.

In total, nearly 17 million passengers will depart the UK from Gatwick this summer.

More than half a million (550,000), meanwhile, are expected to travel through Gatwick over Easter, up 5.1% on last year.

Stephen King, Gatwick head of airline relations, said the new routes demonstrated ongoing demand for Gatwick departures.

“It shows, even though it’s one of the busiest in Europe, airlines can still acquire slots and grow at our airport.

“Rio de Janeiro [operated by Norwegian] has just joined Gatwick’s roster of long-haul connections, while our airlines are opening up new must-see destinations to explore, particularly in Europe.”

Gatwick’s new routes for summer 2019 are:

• Asturias, Spain: three flights a week
• Chisinau, Moldova: two flights a week
• Cluj Napoca, Romania: seven flights a week
• Gdansk, Poland: seven flights a week
• Lametia Terme, Italy: one flight a week
• Miami, US: seven nights a week
• Rijeka, Croatia: one flight a week
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: four flights a week
• San Francisco, US: five flights a week
• Zadar, Croatia: three flights a week

The airport is also extending its Friday passenger entertainment days over Wednesday through Friday.

Gatwick’s top 10 fastest-growing destinations include Jerez, up 273% on summer 2018; Bilbao, up 128%; and Budapest, up 114%.

In terms of longer-haul destinations, Buenos Aires is up 68% while Doha is up 51%.

The airport is also seeing increasing demand for off-the-beaten-track destinations in Europe, such as Ancona in Italy (up 107%), and Volos (up 61%) and Kavala (up 56%) in Greece.