Passengers walk through the South Terminal building at Gatwick Airport, which is now controlled by Vinci of France ReutersGatwick Airport, still recovering from the Christmas crisis of drones flying over its airspace in Sussex, has been sold in a deal that values Britain’s second-largest aviation hub at £5.8 billion. After months of negotiations, the investment fund GIP and its consortium of investors in Gatwick have sold 50.1 per cent of the airport to Vinci of France for £2.9 billion. The announcement of the deal is believed to have been delayed because of the fiasco over the Christmas period, which grounded hundreds of flights and hundreds of thousands of passengers over suspected illegal drone activity at the airport. The deal represents a significant return for GIP - Global Infrastructure Partners, originally founded by funds of Credit Suisse, the bank and General Electric, the industrial conglomerate -…

Source: The Times December 27, 2018 12:00 UTC