Gatwick Airport made £195.2 million profit in 2022 as passenger numbers topped 32 million.
The return to profit came after heavy losses of over £800 million over 2020 and 2021 but chief executive Stuart Wingate said the south London hub still has "some way to go" before it recovers from the impact of the Covid pandemic travel curbs.
The Vinci-operated airport reported EBIDTA of £446.3 million and revenue of £776.6 million, which were"driven by a strong and steady recovery in passenger numbers" and included aeronautical income of £405 million, retail income of £159 million and car parking income of £102 million.
Short-haul flying was back to 92% of 2019, with long-haul lagging at 76%, measured in the number of flights in and out of the airport, while passenger numbers came to around 70% of 2019.
The airport said it made "a significant investment" in 2022 to resurface a runway "in half the time and for half the cost of traditional methods" and said the efficiency of the airport would be further improved in 2023 by a revamped train station and by the addition of new routes and carriers.
"Significantly, Air India will start flying to four new destinations later this month (26 March), Delta Air Lines returns to London Gatwick with the airport’s fourth daily flight to New York (10 April) from this summer, along with Jet Blue, British Airways and Norse Atlantic Airways also operating new long haul routes to North America and the Caribbean," the airport said in its statement.