LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Gatwick Airport said government Covid travel rules had contributed to a heavy interim loss and added that it seeking a temporary waiver on loan covenants from its banks.
Pre-tax losses at the Sussex-based airport narrowed to £204m for the six months to June 30, from £344m a year ago when the pandemic was at its peak and air passenger demand collapsed.

It handled just 569,000 people despite operating costs being reduced by a third and helped by its decision to keep its South Terminal shut since June 2020, pending a pick-up in demand.

"Given the exceptional circumstances affecting air travel the company states that it has entered into discussions with its lenders to temporarily waive its financial covenants," said Gatwick's majority owner Vinci.

Britain's second largest airport has remained open throughout the first six months of the year but said the government's "traffic light" system for overseas travel and testing rules had been a burden.

Chief executive Stuart Wingate joined the growing numbers of travel business leaders in demanding the government offer simpler and cheaper alternatives to Covid tests.

"In the UK we are all emerging to enjoy more freedoms due to our world class vaccination programme - however we are in danger of squandering the advantage that vaccination programme has afforded us for international travel," he said on Friday.

"Our government needs to act now and remove unnecessary and costly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing requirements for passengers, particularly for those double vaccinated. UK travel recovery should not be allowed to lag behind the US and Europe."

"Passengers need the travel rules simplified so they can choose to travel more freely and enjoy much needed breaks and reunions with family and friends which are currently much more attainable for those in Europe and the US."

Britain's competition watchdog has said it will investigate the price of PCR Covid tests after a call from government ministers for a review into "excessive" pricing and "exploitative practices" among test providers.

Travel industry bosses, including those at rival Heathrow airport, have blamed the high cost of PCR tests for putting people off travelling abroad.

Gatwick - owned by VINCI Airports and Global Infrastructure Partners - said there should be no test requirements for travellers from countries on the UK's green travel list or double-vaccinated travellers from amber nations.

Gatwick said it was able to save £31.3m by slashing staff costs almost in half. It made more than 40% of its employees redundant last year.

The business said it had £779m of liquidity including £624m of cash which is sufficient liquidity to meet operating cashflows, planned investment levels and interest payments "for at least the next 12 months".

"This ensures Gatwick is well placed for the recovery. Gatwick has commenced a consent solicitation process to address forecast breaches in financial covenants, following successful discussions with its banks and with bondholders".

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