Gatwick remains a leisure airfield with only Emirates and Qatar as major long haul business carriers, with BA and Virgin operating primarily sun and leisure routes.
Skipness, this is a fair point, but it is worth considering that Easyjet now claim that 16% of their passngers fly on business. Gatwick would be a good deal more in my opinion given the scale of the business and the frequency on many of the routes. Flybe with frequency on many routes are getting their fair share of business passengers too. BAs network especially short haul, same story.
While a single runway airport has capacity constraints, there is a level of certainty in the place given so many competing airlines, and it is this, there will generally be a demand for any available slots as Easyjet will try to take up all free slots to keep airlines like Ryanair, Flybe and Aer Lingus expanding there. Hence not likely to be a big slump in demand for slots at this single runway airport. The airport still also gets on the map for being the busiest single runway airport!
As Heathrow is full any additional full service carriers who want to serve London will go to Gatwick? Easyjet are constantly reviewing there model and I personally think that it will in the fullness of time (maybe 3 years) start interlining and allowing connections, as this would be a key point of difference between them and Ryanair. Yes it distinctly not their way of working now and they state they are point to point but Easyjet will evolve and this is a possibility for coming years as the model seeks to drive yield and revenue.
EI-BUD