Why do we think it's the airport? Ryanair have a somewhat larger operation similarly dominating single runway Stansted which whilst far from perfect, doesn't have the delays of Gatters. LGW's pain points are similar to STN and MAN, literally a stupid amount of based aeroplane trying to get out in the first wave to fly a 4-6 sector day then huge periods of relatively empty aprons. easyJet have planned no contingency, an old fashioned term once baked into the higher ticket price. The odd hot spare pressed into service to recover the operation doesn't happen so much anymore. What does Ryanair do differently / better here?
They both effectively have a dedicated handling operation albeit third party in Blue Handling and DHL (it's still DHL right?).