Sir Ivor Broom Sir Robert Hardingham Frank Horridge Graham Hutchinson Angus J. Kinnear Cliff Nunn Michael Newman Martin O'Regan Peter Ryan John T. Seear Alan J. Snudden David J. Quinn Charles R. Whyte Ken Smith
Gatwick Handling was originally established in the late-1960s as a new company jointly owned by Airbourne Aviation and Messrs Metcalfe and Foukes. The company's liquidation soon after its formation resulted in ownership passing to Davies and Newman (D&N), parent company of the British independent[nb 1] airline Dan-Air. D&N's search for a co-owner for its new ground handling unit led to the sale of a 50 per cent stake to Laker Airways (Services), an associate company of former Gatwick-based UK independent airline Laker Airways which was a contemporary competitor of Dan-Air.[1][2][3]
Gatwick Handling's official appointment as an airport concessionaire occurred in early 1972 following the signing of an agreement between the British Airports Authority (BAA), Dan-Air and Laker Airways. Under this agreement, the BAA licensed Gatwick Handling to conduct ground handling operations at London Gatwick on behalf of third parties.[4][5][6]
In addition to assuming responsibility for handling all Dan-Air and Laker flights at Gatwick, a growing number of third-party airlines appointed Gatwick Handling their handling agent at the airport.[7]
Laker Airways's demise in early 1982 brought about a change in ownership that initially saw D&N gain 100% control of Gatwick Handling and the subsequent sale of the 50% stake previously owned by an associate company of the defunct airline sold on to US carriers Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines.[4][5][8]
In the late-1980s, Gatwick Handling extended its geographical coverage of the UK to other airports, leading to establishment of GH Manchester and GH Stansted respectively.[9][10]
In 1994, Gatwick Handling extended its geographical coverage to Ghana in West Africa. To give it a more international image, the company abbreviated its name to GHI (for Gatwick Handling International).[10]
In 1998, Go-Ahead Group replaced Northwest and Delta as GHI's owner.[13]
In 2000, Go-ahead merged GHI with its other UK aircraft ground handling operations, Midland Airport Services, British Midland Handling Services and Reed Aviation, under the Aviance UK brand.
History
As a private, unsubsidised airline that for most of its existence mainly operated low-margin, predominantly seasonal charter flights due to government restrictions on scheduled services, Dan-Air needed to minimise overheads to ensure its profitability. One way to do this was to outsource its ground handling to a third-party handler.[7][14]
In the late-1960s, Dan-Air contracted its ground handling at Gatwick to Airbourne Aviation, an independent handler owned by a Mr Herbert Snowball, whose staff manned the airline's ground handling unit at the airport.[7][14]
To keep pace with the growth of Dan-Air's Gatwick operation and to keep the airline's contract, as well as to win more third-party business at the airport, Herbert Snowball partnered Messrs Metcalfe and Foukes to form a new company named Gatwick Handling. Poor results forced Gatwick Handling to cease trading and go into liquidation within a short period of time, putting Dan-Air and the other airlines who had given the now-defunct company their ground handling business at Gatwick in a difficult position. To secure the check-in desks Dan-Air had contracted from Gatwick Handling and to minimise additional costs arising from its handling agent's failure, as well as to avoid confusing the travelling public who had already been informed by tour operators and travel agents to report to Gatwick Handling for check-in, Dan-Air's parent D&N agreed with BAA and the failed company's other creditors to continue trading under the same name in return for settling outstanding debts.[3][4]
Dan-Air's requirement for additional check-in desks at Gatwick resulted in discussions about the formation of a new joint handling company with fellow independent airline and airport resident Caledonian Airways, whose expansion had led to a requirement for more check-in desks at the airport as well. Although talks between both parties made good progress, the latter backed out of a deal following its successful bid to take over British United Airways (BUA) in late-November 1970. As Britain's biggest independent airline and leading independent scheduled carrier, as well as Gatwick's largest resident airline, BUA already had a well-developed ground handling infrastructure at the airport. This enabled it to handle all of its own flights in-house and provide ground handling services to third parties. For Caledonian this meant that it no longer required the services of a third-party ground handler at Gatwick. As a consequence of Caledonian's change in circumstances, D&N needed to find a new partner who was willing to co-own the yet to be formed joint handling company. An expression of interest from Laker Airways founder and majority owner Freddie Laker, who wanted his airline to attain a greater degree of autonomy at its home airport, ended D&N's search for a partner to share control of a joint handling company.[4][5]
BAA agreed to award the new company a concession to become one of the airport's appointed ground handlers. This was followed by the official signing of the contract in February 1972. Signatories included Dan-Air managing director Alan Snudden, airport director David Livingstone and Freddie Laker. The contractual period for the licence[nb 2] covering Gatwick Handling's appointment as an airport concessionaire was ten years. That arrangement afforded Gatwick Handling security of tenure to invest in new ground handling equipment to enable Gatwick's airlines to serve the airport with the then latest-generation widebodied aircraft.[4][5][6]
The expiry of Gatwick Handling's original ten-year licence in February 1982 coincided with the collapse of half-owner Laker Airways the same month. Initially, this resulted in D&N taking full control of Gatwick Handling. However, the BAA insisted that other airlines should become additional shareholders to prevent D&N subsidiary Dan-Air from deriving an unfair advantage from its sister company's status as monopoly provider of third-party ground handling services at Gatwick Airport. US carriers Northwest and Delta, whose transatlantic flights used Gatwick as their London terminal as a result of restrictions on access to Heathrow implemented in the Bermuda II UK–US bilateral agreement and whose ground handling in London had been contracted to Gatwick Handling, each acquired a 25% stake in the ground handler in 1983 and 1984, respectively. These moves ensured Gatwick Handling's continuity and stability. They also resulted in the new shareholders replacing the former Laker representatives on the ground handler's board of directors with their own people.[4][5][8]
To reduce its dependence on Gatwick and to take advantage of new business opportunities at other UK airports in the late-1980s, Gatwick Handling established GH Manchester and GH Stansted to begin ground handling operations at Manchester and Stansted respectively.[9] (The former took over the operations of Manchester Handling,[nb 3] an associate company of Dan-Air formed in the mid-80s.[15])
Another change in Gatwick Handling's ownership occurred, when BA acquired D&N along with some of the assets of Dan-Air for £1 in late-October 1992. As the UK flag carrier handled all of its Gatwick flights in-house and did not require Gatwick Handling's check-in desks, this resulted in disposal of the stake it had inherited in the ground handling company to remaining shareholders Delta and Northwest in 1993, thus dividing the ground handler's entire share capital between the two American carriers.[11][12]
A new international expansion strategy that saw Gatwick Handling launch its first overseas ground handling operation in Ghana, West Africa, in 1994, replaced the by then official Gatwick Handling International name with its abbreviated form GHI.[10]
GHI's ownership changed again in 1998, when Delta and Northwest sold out to the Go-Ahead Group.[13]
Following GHI's merger with Midland Airport Services, British Midland Handling Services and Reed Aviation in 2000, all of Go-Ahead's UK aviation interests were rebranded as Aviance UK.
Heathrow Airport, called London Airport until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow, is the main international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system. The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, owned mostly by Ferrovial and Qatar Investment Authority and CDPQ. In 2022, it was the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and the busiest airport in Europe in 2023. It is also the airport with the world's most international connections as of 2023.
London Stansted Airport is the tertiary international airport serving London, England. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, 42 mi (68 km) northeast of Central London.
Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, West Sussex, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and was originally planned by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and the Falkland Islands. Soon after changing the name to Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fields sold his shares in the company after disagreements with Richard Branson over the management of the company. The maiden flight from London–Gatwick to Newark took place on 22 June 1984.
London Gatwick, also known as Gatwick Airport, is the secondary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Crawley, West Sussex, England 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London. In 2022, Gatwick was the second-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Heathrow Airport, and was the 8th-busiest in Europe by total passenger traffic. It covers a total area of 674 hectares.
Sir Frederick Alfred Laker was an English airline entrepreneur, best known for founding Laker Airways in 1966, which went bankrupt in 1982. Known as Freddie Laker, he was one of the first airline owners to adopt the "low cost / no-frills" airline business model that has since proven to be successful worldwide when employed by companies such as Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, easyJet, Norwegian Air, and AirAsia.
Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport was the former primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal and was the fourth busiest airport in Germany, with over 24 million passengers in 2019. In 2016, Tegel handled over 60% of all airline passenger traffic in Berlin. The airport served as a base for Eurowings, Ryanair as well as easyJet. It featured flights to several European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as some intercontinental routes. It was situated in Tegel, a section of the northern borough of Reinickendorf, eight kilometres northwest of the city centre of Berlin. Tegel Airport was notable for its hexagonal main terminal building around an open square, which made walking distances as short as 30 m (100 ft) from the aircraft to the terminal exit.
British Midland Airways Limited was an airline in the United Kingdom with its head office in Donington Hall in Castle Donington, close to East Midlands Airport, England. The airline flew to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and Central Asia from its main hub at Heathrow Airport, where at its peak it held about 13% of all takeoff and landing slots and operated over 2,000 flights a week. BMI was a member of Star Alliance from 1 July 2000 until 20 April 2012.
BA Connect was a wholly-owned subsidiary airline of British Airways. It was headquartered in Didsbury, Manchester, England, it operated a network of domestic and European services from a number of airports in the United Kingdom on behalf of British Airways. The airline operated as a low-cost carrier, with food sold via a 'buy on board' programme.
Heathrow Airport Holdings is the United Kingdom-based operator of Heathrow Airport. The company also operated Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport, Edinburgh Airport and several other UK airports, but was forced by the Competition Commission to sell them in order to break up a monopoly. It was formed by the privatisation of the British Airports Authority as BAA plc as part of Margaret Thatcher's moves to privatise government-owned assets, and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Dan-Air was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo and passenger charter flights from Southend (1953–1955) and Blackbushe airports (1955–1960) using a variety of piston-engined aircraft before moving to a new base at Gatwick Airport in 1960, followed by expansion into inclusive tour (IT) charter flights and all-year round scheduled services. The introduction of two de Havilland Comet series 4 jet aircraft in 1966 made Dan-Air the second British independent airline after British United Airways to begin sustained jet operations.
Laker Airways was a private British airline founded by Sir Freddie Laker in 1966. It was originally a charter airline flying passengers and cargo worldwide. Its head office was located at Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England.
GB Airways is a former British airline; prior to its sale, it was headquartered in 'The Beehive', a former terminal building, at City Place Gatwick, London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, England.
In aviation, aircraft ground handling or ground operations defines the servicing of an aircraft while it is on the ground and (usually) parked at a terminal gate of an airport.
Servisair was an aircraft ground handling company which was acquired and merged into Swissport and partly the Nordic-based Aviator Airport Alliance in 2014.
Tradewinds Airways Ltd was a British all-cargo airline. Its head office was located in Timberham House, on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England.
Air transport in the United Kingdom is the commercial carriage of passengers, freight and mail by aircraft, both within the United Kingdom (UK) and between the UK and the rest of the world. In the past 25 years the industry has seen continuous growth, and the demand for passenger air travel in particular is forecast to increase from the current level of 236 million passengers to 465 million in 2030. One airport, Heathrow Airport, is amongst the top ten busiest airports in the world. More than half of all passengers travelling by air in the UK currently travel via the six London area airports. Outside London, Manchester Airport is by far the largest and busiest of the remaining airports, acting as a hub for the 20 million or so people who live within a two-hour drive. Regional airports have experienced the most growth in recent years, due to the success of low-cost carrier airlines over the last decade.
Aviance UK was an aircraft ground handling agent, operating at 15 airports in the United Kingdom and many more, as part of its alliance, worldwide. It was a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group, a rail, bus and aviation services provider across the UK. In December 2009 it was announced that Aviance UK would move away from the aviation industry beginning with the sale of 11 aviance stations to Servisair with contracts due for exchange by late January 2010. Stations at Heathrow Terminal 1 and Jersey Airport remained with Aviance until its contracts expired in 2011.
City Place Gatwick is an office complex located on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, England. The complex includes four buildings: The Beehive, an approximately 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) former terminal building at Gatwick Airport located on a 2.0-acre (0.81 ha) site; 1 City Place a 131,500-square-foot (12,220 m2) facility on a 4.2-acre (1.7 ha) site, 2 City Place, a 85,000-square-foot (7,900 m2) building on a 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) plot, and 3 City Place, a 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m2) building on a 1.06-acre (0.43 ha) plot. Hamiltons Architects designed the L-shaped 3 City Place.
Airlink was the brand name of a helicopter shuttle service which ran between London's two main airports, Gatwick and Heathrow, between 1978 and 1986. Operated jointly by British Caledonian Airways and British Airways Helicopters using a Sikorsky S-61 owned by the British Airports Authority, the "curious and unique operation" connected the rapidly growing airports in the years before the M25 motorway existed. Although at one point the service was granted a licence to operate until 1994, the Secretary of State for Transport intervened and revoked the licence with effect from February 1986—by which time the continued existence of the link had become "a highly controversial issue" debated by Members of Parliament, airlines, airport operators, local authorities and many other interest groups. No similar service has operated between the airports since Airlink's cessation.
Gatwick Airport was in Surrey until 1974, when it became part of West Sussex as a result of a county boundary change. The original, pre-World War II airport was built on the site of a manor in the parish of Charlwood. The land was first used as an aerodrome in the 1920s, and in 1933 commercial flights there were approved by the Air Ministry.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
