London Gatwick held it's third Economic Summit this week. Here is Stewart Wingate's full keynote speech where he talks about the new Airport Economic Zone, a successful year and the latest on the Northern Runway plans
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00:00And good morning everybody. It's wonderful to see so many people here in person today and
00:06I must admit I'm a bit blown away by just how many people we have got in the room
00:10from such a diverse number of partnerships that we have. It's remarkable. As Sacha said,
00:21this is now our third year of doing the Economic Summit, so we're very proud to continue to host
00:27the Summit and to do this important work. And of course, as the airport, we take our position as
00:32the economic anchor for the region exceptionally important. The work of the airport across the
00:40region generates about £4.1 billion of economic value-add to the regional economy, so we know we
00:48have a really important role to play and that's why we're so happy to have so many of our partners
00:54here today looking at ways in which we can collaborate in the years ahead to optimise
00:59further the benefits that the airport can bring to the regional economy. As Sacha said, the agenda
01:07today is informed based on feedback from the previous events and from the summer events,
01:11so hopefully it hits the mark. And I'm delighted to say that from the Gatwick team, we've got many
01:17senior representatives in the room today, so we have our chair, Baroness Margaret Ford, with us
01:23and also a number of my executive team. We've got Jonathan, who will speak shortly, who's our chief
01:29commercial officer. We've got Tim Norwood in the room, who's our chief planning officer. Samantha
01:35Fulton, who's our director of communications and external affairs. So a number of the senior team
01:42at Gatwick in the room today to help us with the engagement. In terms of the year 2024, how's it
01:52been for the airport? It's been a really good year. As you can see on the slide, we will have
01:59more than 40 million passengers travel through the airport this year. We've got several weeks
02:05left to go, so you never want to take anything for granted in the airport business, but I would
02:10hope that we have just over 43 million passengers travel through the airport this year, which is
02:16about 92.5% recovery versus where we were back in 2019. So I think it's fair to say the airport's
02:24thriving and I'm delighted to say that the service levels that passengers have had going through the
02:28airport this year have been very good. Sacha touched upon the importance of new routes to
02:35the airport and to the regional economy. I'm delighted to say that we have 30 new routes
02:42of which 21 belong whole. You can see a number of the carriers who joined us in recent months,
02:49some very prestigious carriers, but one of which I think I should definitely give a shout out to
02:56of course is Singapore Airlines. I'm very grateful for Rafi, who is the general manager
03:01of Singapore Airlines for the UK and Ireland joining us today and participating in the conference.
03:06So Rafi, you're very welcome to be here. We're very proud to have you as one of our long-haul
03:11carriers and we're very much looking forward to those additional frequencies at the end of March
03:16next year, so you're very welcome to be here. In terms of investing in the airport, as the
03:23business has recovered, so we've certainly started to ramp up our capital investment efforts
03:30at the airport. So when I look at the year 2024-25, the financial year, we should invest
03:37somewhere of the order of about £180 million in improving the infrastructure at the airport and
03:44that's part of the £2 billion programme of capital investment that we have running out until the end
03:51of 2029. So I thought I'd just share a number of the key projects that are either in delivery
03:59or have been delivered recently. I think the first one, which has been very eye-catching this
04:05year, which is a project which is about 12 years in the making, is the rail station upgrade. I
04:10think, actually as I was having coffee outside, one delegate said that was the first time a day
04:15he'd been through the rail station. I think he frankly couldn't believe what a transformation
04:19that's been. So I think the work that the airport's done with DFT and Network Rail and the
04:25local enterprise partnership has really paid dividends and certainly from the airport perspective
04:30we've seen passengers enjoy the facility of a double-sized rail station through the peak summer
04:36months and it's really transformed the experience of passengers getting to and from the airport by
04:41rail, which of course is a sustainable means of transport. There are many other projects that we
04:47have been working on, so I'll just pick one or two. In the north terminal, in the departure lounge,
04:53we've fully refurbished all of the central areas. Often an airport will be criticised for
04:58forever changing out the retail units but sort of forgetting about the common area.
05:04So we did that during the winter last year and I'm pleased to say we'll be doing likewise in the
05:09south terminal this winter ahead of next summer. Passengers have really enjoyed that. As you
05:16approach the south terminal, we work with the company Grid Surf to actually implement the first
05:21electrical forecourt at any airport in Europe. So passengers who are travelling to and from the
05:28airport using an electrical car can now go to the forecourt and take advantage of the high-speed
05:35charging facilities that we have in the Grid Surf facility. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend
05:39seeing it, it's quite eye-catching. Other things we're working on is the Pier 6 expansion over
05:45the north terminal which will see us have eight new Pier Surf stands. This is a project that should
05:51be delivered for the summer season of 2027. So we've got about 120 million pounds of capex to go
05:57on that project. We're currently on site with MACE. And then projects that have been delivered or will
06:02be delivered imminently, I just pointed the new car park over in the north terminal. It's a 3,300
06:08space car park. It should open just before Christmas time, at least that's what Jonathan's promised me.
06:15And then out on the airfield, we're also making improvements with our new rapid exit taxiway,
06:22which increases the resilience of the airfield. So there's a lot of investment happening as part
06:27of our investment programme. And we're also now starting to turn on the investment for our net
06:32zero target of getting our Scope 102 emissions for the airport at net zero by the end of 2030.
06:40So in the new year, we'll start investing in air source heat pumps to replace our gas boilers.
06:47So things are certainly moving quite quickly at the airport.
06:52In terms of the future, I think it would be remiss of me not to talk about the work of the
06:57Northern Runway project. I think many people in the room would have been following this closely.
07:03It's a project which we've been working on for about seven years now. And we're getting very
07:08close to finding out what the government decision is. Tim Norwood, who I think is known to many
07:14people in the room, has been leading this work. And it's very important for the airport. I think
07:19Sasha showed earlier, by the late 2030s, there's no reason why the airport shouldn't grow to
07:2575 million passengers, should this £2.2 billion project, which would be fully privately funded,
07:33be given the go ahead in the new year. If it is given the go ahead, which we very much hope it
07:38will be, 14,000 additional jobs across the region will be created, adding a further £1 billion to
07:45the regional economy when the runways have been running. So from our perspective, this is an
07:51incredibly important project. We've worked really hard. The examination period, which ran for six
07:56months this year, completed at the end of August. Literally next week, we anticipate the planning
08:02inspectors putting their recommendation to government. We'll not see that recommendation.
08:07We'll be notified if that's happened. And then the Secretary of State for Transport has three
08:12months to make the decision. So we're hoping early in the new year, but finally after seven
08:18years of work, we will have permission to take this project forward to the benefit of the regional
08:23economy. Today's summit, as we've already heard, is really about having one regional voice and
08:31navigating a way forward together. So throughout the event, other speakers will really focus on
08:36these three key areas of inward investment, international trade and regenerative tourism.
08:43But I thought what we should do from the airport perspective is to just share some of the examples
08:48that we're working on in order for us to be a strong partner for the regional economy.
08:54So first of all, I'll just talk a little bit about the enormous effort that the teams at the airport
08:59are putting in concerning the skills agenda. I think many people in the room will have visited
09:05our new STEM centre. It's a centre that really prioritises science, technology, engineering and
09:13maths and really is being used as a gateway to engage with younger people, either school age,
09:20college age or even further education age as well, to look at what the prospects could be
09:27if they were to come into the aviation business. I think it's fair to say that we've had tens of
09:33visits from various different educational partners over the last year. In fact, we've
09:39had over 3,000 local students go through this facility. So it's been exceptionally well used
09:46and we're very pleased with the partnerships and the progress that we're making on this agenda.
09:52What we've also done is to continue with our graduate programme. We restarted that last year.
09:59We actually scaled it up this year and I'm delighted to say we've got many graduates from
10:03local universities now as part of our graduate programme at the airport. For the first time,
10:10we've actually partnered with local state schools to bring in school age children on internships
10:17and also work experience at the airport. Just finally on the skills agenda, one topic that's
10:23very close to my heart is our apprenticeship programme. I actually started my career as an
10:28apprentice and I'm delighted to say that at Gatwick, even through the pandemic, we kept the
10:33apprenticeship programme going and it's now in its 47th consecutive year. The young guy that you see
10:39on the screen in the middle there is a guy called Billy Marsh, who was the apprentice of the year
10:45for the entire region this year. So he's somebody who we're very proud of and he certainly set the
10:51bar high for the other apprentices to follow in his shoes. In terms of innovation, you can see
10:58that we held our inaugural innovation summit this year. One of our guys there, Abi, is hosting that
11:05summit and that was really bringing together different businesses across the region to see
11:11how we can put the great innovation minds of the region together to improve the passenger experience
11:18of passengers going through the airport. Just two more examples on the next slide of how we've
11:24been partnering. First of all, I'll talk about the work that we've been doing on the visitor economy.
11:29We've been partnering with Gateway Gatwick partners. In this partnership, we've developed
11:36a marketing campaign with quite significant digital media collateral, which is then being
11:42used by our teams who do the route development for the airport to go across into international
11:48markets to market the benefits and to promote our region. The markets that we've used this
11:55collateral in include the likes of China, India, Singapore and Africa. So we really are putting
12:02this collateral to work, particularly to the benefit of our long-haul routes. Of course, we still
12:08continue our work with the local visitor economy partnership. Then from a regional promotion
12:14perspective, delegates who were here last year will remember that we talked about the first
12:19delegation going from this area to the REEF conference that was to be held in Leeds last year.
12:26Really pleased to say that with the Gatwick Diamond initiative, the airport took a leadership
12:32position in promoting the region and in so doing, reached an audience of about 13,000 delegates
12:41at that conference, including many international investors and developers. So I think quite a
12:48rich vein of partnership. So in closing, I'd like to share two pieces of news with you.
12:56The first one is that once again, we're going to lead a delegation to the REEF conference in 2025.
13:04Already, more partners have signed up to join us in this mission. We think it's a very worthwhile
13:11conference to be part of to promote our region. And if anybody in the room feels that they'd like
13:16to be part of that, please just talk to members of my team, particularly Alison Nanny or Richard
13:22Leonard, because we'd love to involve you. And just on the final slide, the other thing that we're
13:29really pleased to announce today, and this is very much taking into account some of the feedback over
13:33the last two years, is the Gatwick Region Airport Economic Zone.
13:39So you'll hear more about this later on in the morning from Alison Nanny. She's the Head of
13:57External Affairs and Policy at Gatwick Airport, known to many people in the room.
14:02Alison will be chairing a new innovative public and private task force, which will be looking at
14:10the airport economic zone with the purpose of striving to achieve a united and unified
14:17regional identity in order to bolster the economic activity across the region.