Hiring spree: Gatwick recruits 400 security staff to battle delays
Gatwick has hired 400 additional security staff over the last few weeks as the airport battles the ongoing travel chaos.
Crowned the UK’s worst hub last week, Gatwick said it was still recruiting workers ahead of the peak summer period.
“With passenger numbers rapidly returning to 2019 levels, we expect to be busy, particularly at peak times such as weekends and the forthcoming school summer holidays,” explained Gatwick’s chief operating officer Adrian Witherow.
“We are doing everything possible to make the airport process as smooth as possible, including recruiting and training hundreds of new security staff, many of whom have already started or will be in coming weeks.”
To secure smoother operations, the Sussex hub has also urged passengers to prepare ahead of time by removing all liquids before going through security.
Gatwick explained that around 10,000 hand luggage items are rejected on a daily basis and that contributes to delays.
Since the beginning of the year, the Crawley airport has cancelled 3.2 per cent of its flights, 10 times more than Stansted.
Britain’s second biggest airport limited the number of take-offs from a reported daily average of 900 over recent months to 825 in July, and then up to 850 per day in August.