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* CEO says flights at about 100 per day from mid-Dec
* Says new shorter quarantine rule boosting travel
* Sees strong summer next year
* Says Wizz, Ryanair keen to grow at Gatwick
(Adds detail, background, more comments)
By Sarah Young
GATWICK AIRPORT, England, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The boss of
Britain's Gatwick Airport said the introduction of shorter
quarantine times from mid-December was boosting travel, and that
the combination of testing and a COVID-19 vaccine means he is
optimistic holidays can restart next year.
Gatwick, Britain's second busiest airport, is opening a new
COVID-19 testing facility on Monday, offering passengers
discounted tests. CEO Stewart Wingate hopes by making it easier
and cheaper to get a test, more people will travel.
From mid-December, travellers arriving in England will have
to quarantine for five days instead of 14 if they have a
negative test, a rule change which Wingate said is helping.
"We are seeing already an uptick in flights, so we should
expect to see about 100 flights per day by the time we get to
the middle of December, and across the Christmas period," he
told Reuters in an interview.
The pandemic has battered the aviation industry, leaving
Gatwick particularly exposed as airlines such as British Airways
and Virgin Atlantic have prioritised flights from
Heathrow, Britain's no.1 airport to the west of London.
During England's latest lockdown in November, Gatwick,
easyJet's biggest base, had about four flights a day, a
startling drop from 600 flights a day this time last year. Some
of Gatwick's airlines, such as Norwegian, are fighting for
survival.
Wingate, who has had to axe 45% of Gatwick's staff during
the pandemic, forecast a travel recovery next summer, when he
expected the airport's airlines to be flying between 60% and 70%
of their 2019 capacity.
"I expect once the vaccinations roll out and the testing is
rolled out, we should expect to see quite a strong performance
in the market next summer," he said.
The testing site in a long-stay car park at Gatwick will
initially be able to test up to 500 people per day, but this
could be ramped up to 2,000 a day, and then 4,000 a day given
sufficient demand, according to testing company ExpressTest.
Wingate said demand for tests at the site was "strong" and
he hoped ExpressTest would roll out more sites. They will cost
Gatwick passengers 60 pounds ($80), and anyone else 100 pounds.
Wingate said Gatwick, 30 miles south of London, also
remained attractive to airlines. Hungarian airline Wizz Air
has publicly said it wants to expand at Gatwick, and
Wingate said others did too.
"Ryanair are quite keen to grow as well at the airport," he
said.
($1 = 0.7500 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Holton and Jan
Harvey)
