Gatwick celebrates flight milestone
23 May 2016 09:01
Gatwick has marked the 80th anniversary of its first flight
Gatwick has offered holidaymakers a glimpse into its past, by releasing a series of images to mark a new milestone.
This month marks the 80th anniversary of the first scheduled passenger flight from the West Sussex airport.
In order to celebrate the occasion, the airport has unveiled a range of historic pictures, covering the last eight decades.
The pictures include one of Diana, Princess of Wales, listening to air traffic control dialogue during a trip to the site in 1988, and another of the Queen opening the rebuilt airport in the late 1950s.
Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II and the former US president John F Kennedy are also represented in the set of photos.
May 1936 saw the first scheduled flight take off from Gatwick, with the plane heading for Paris over the English Channel in France.
The European destinations of Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Malmo were also served by flights from Gatwick in the 12 months following its opening.
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Gatwick's passenger growth
Gatwick recently highlighted just how much it has grown over the last 80 years by revealing its latest passenger figures.
The airport celebrated the fact that its annual passenger total has now reached a level of 41 million.
Gatwick and its South East rival Heathrow are both aiming to secure permission to build a new runway from the Government.
The Airports Commission last year recommended that a new runway should be built at Heathrow.
However, the Government has opted to extend its decision-making process, with further work on noise, pollution and compensation being carried out to determine which site should be expanded.