HL Deb 07 February 1979 vol 398 cc817-8WA
Lord TREFGARNE

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the average number of passengers presently carried in each aircraft landing at or taking off from Gatwick Airport; and what is the average number envisaged for each aircraft when calculating the maximum capacity of the airport.

Lord JACQUES

In 1978 the average load per passenger aircraft, excluding helicopters, at Gatwick was 88 passengers. Assuming that with a total runway capacity of 160,000 air transport movements, 148,000 were passenger aircraft, an average load of 168 passengers per aircraft would be needed to achieve a throughput of 25 million passengers a year.