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Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Gatwick drone chaos ! airport sold to Vinci !!


The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.

Sussex  is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. The name derives from the Kingdom of Sussex, which was founded, according to legend, by Ælle of Sussex in AD 477. Around 827, it was absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex and subsequently into the kingdom of England.  It has the famous airport Gatwick. The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s. The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, and the first terminal, "The Beehive", was built in 1935.

Gatwick Airport  is a major international airport near Crawley in West Sussex, southeast England, 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London. It is the second-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom, after Heathrow Airport. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe. Until 2017, it was the busiest single-use runway airport in the world, covering a total area of 674 hectares (1,670 acres).  Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s; it has been in use for commercial flights since 1933. The airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal, but operates as a single-runway airport, using a main runway.

Now comes the news that Gatwick Airport has been sold to France's Vinci for £2.9 billion, just days after reports of drone sightings closed its runway and caused chaos for thousands of passengers.Under the terms of the deal, a consortium led by US investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) will sell a 50.01% stake to Vinci Airports.The UK’s second biggest airport struck the deal with Vinci, who operates over 40 airports globally across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

It comes after the Sussex airport was heavily disrupted in the run-up to Christmas, after reports of drone sightings caused havoc for Christmas travellers.Around 1,000 Gatwick flights were cancelled or diverted across three days last week after drones were spotted inside the airport perimeter.The crisis ruined the pre-Christmas travel plans of tens of thousands of people.However, there were subsequent suggestions that there may never have been any drones at Gatwick, although police later played them down, saying they were down to "poor communications".Michael McGhee, GIP partner, said: "We expect the transaction to be completed by the middle of next year, with the senior leadership team remaining in place."Their focus, along with everyone at Gatwick, obviously remains on doing their very best for customers over the busy holiday period after the challenges of recent days."

Media reports suggest that the  senior management team at Gatwick will stay in post following the deal, with chairman Sir David Higgins, chief exec Stewart Wingate and finance chief Nick Dunn continuing in their roles.GIP will continue to manage the remaining 49.99% interest in Gatwick after the transaction closes in the second quarter.Nicolas Notebaert, president of Vinci Airports, is quoted as saying : "As Gatwick's new industrial partner, Vinci Airports will support and encourage growth of traffic, operational efficiency and leverage its international expertise in the development of commercial activities to further improve passenger satisfaction and experience."

Warren Hastings ( 1732 – 1818), an English statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of India from 1773 to 1785. In 1787, he was accused of corruption and impeached, but after a long trial, he was acquitted in 1795.  Hastings  joined the British East India Company in 1750 as a clerk and sailed out to India, reaching Calcutta

With regards – S.Sampathkumar
28th Dec 2o18.

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