Digital Covid certificate could be key to Gatwick recovery, says boss

Stewart Wingate expresses optimism for summer despite airport reporting 526m pre-tax loss

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Gatwick's boss has said a digital Covid certificate could be the key to success" if 70% of the airport's usual traffic is to return after May - adding that it expects to serve only a few hundred passengers and lose 1m a day until then.

London's second airport reported a 526m pre-tax loss last year, compared with a 211m profit in 2019. Passenger numbers dropped 78% in 2020 as the pandemic hit, forcing the airport to lay off 40% of staff and mothball one of its two terminals in an effort to cut costs.