Gatwick is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its first flight today with a look back at some of the famous faces who have passed through.Vintage pictures show Princess Diana in the control tower in 1988, Pope John Paul II kissing the ground in 1982, and John F Kennedy’s arrival in 1963, months before his assassination.
The airport’s first flight on Jersey Airways, passengers paid four pounds and five shillings, the equivalent of approximately £160 today, for a ticket and first class train fare from London Victoria station.
Paris was 1 of 5 routes from Gatwick in its 1st year, the others were Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Malmo. Since then the figure has grown to more than 200 destinations in 90 countries today.
The airport currently has become the busiest single-runway airport in the world, serving a record 41million passengers last year.
