Empark Adds Gatwick Airport to their Portfolio
Empark (UK), the wholly owned subsidiary of Iberian parking company Empark Aparcamientos y Servicios S.A. has been awarded the contract to manage parking at Gatwick Airport. Empark adds the airport to its operations at London Stansted and Edinburgh, and this means that they now operate some 24 airports across Europe.
Gatwick Airport is the second largest airport in the UK, and with over 900 movements a day is the busiest single runway airport in the world. The airport has achieved its busiest year in its history with 38.7 million passengers, an increase of 7.8% on the previous year.
Under the new contract Empark becomes responsible for over 40,000 parking spaces, management of the terminal forecourts and the airport coach park. The award nearly doubles the size of Empark’s UK operations, taking the number of spaces managed to over 80,000 spaces.
Empark will operate 11 staff parking areas, servicing 17,500 pass holders. In addition there are 28,500 public places in long-stay and block parking. There are also 4,800 short stay places, including valet and premium parking facilities, in multi-storey car parks at the two terminals, as well as some 200 spaces serving commuters.
Empark was chosen after an exhaustive tendering process which emphasised the need for a quality service to enhance passenger experience, as well as the ability to adapt and expand the service as the airport grows. Empark entered the UK market in 2008 when they took control of the parking at London Stansted.
A representative of Empark said: “We are delighted that Gatwick Airport Ltd. have entrusted us to operate facilities at this prestigious and internationally important airport. Our reputation for delivering high quality and innovative services has been recognised and we look forward to continuing that tradition by providing new, better and innovative services at Gatwick”.
Empark took formal control of the facilities from the previous incumbents (APCOA & Vinci Park) the last 16th of June after a successful handover. Since the award of the contract in March this year, Empark staff has been working closely with Gatwick Airport Ltd to move all the existing systems and to transfer over 300 staff members. In addition this work included arrangements to transfer over 8,000 cars that were valet parked at the airport.
Please direct all enquiries to:
Jane Farnworth: j.farnworth@empark.es