PARIS - France's Vinci Airports on Thursday sealed a deal to acquire a majority share in London's Gatwick airport, Britain's second biggest, for 2.9 billion pounds (3.22 billion euros, $3.67 billion). Gatwick was forced to close its only runway repeatedly between last Wednesday and Friday due to reports of mystery drone sightings nearby, impacting nearly 140,000 passengers. Gatwick "operates the busiest single runway in the world. "The whole Vinci Airports network will benefit from Gatwick Airport’s world-class management and operational excellence, which has allowed it to deliver strong and steady growth in a very constrained environment," Nicolas Notebaert, Vinci Airports chief said. With the latest acquisition, Vinci Airports will control 46 airports in 12 countries with a total traffic of 228 million passengers a year.

Source: Bangkok Post December 27, 2018 09:45 UTC