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Whitbread secures new hotels for Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted
14/09/2009
Premier Inn, the UK's largest and fastest-growing hotel operator, has announced plans for four new hotels at London's leading airports, creating a total of 1,570 rooms.
Premier Inn has entered into agreements with companies owned by the Arora Family Trust to lease the hotels at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. The agreements are conditional upon obtaining planning permission and other consents. The four new airport sites will be built out as ‘developer turn-key' deals and represent an investment on a capitalised lease basis of in excess of £125m. The hotels will open on a phased basis from the Autumn of 2011 onwards.
- Heathrow, Terminal 5, 400 bedrooms
- Heathrow, Terminal 4, 240 bedrooms
- Stansted, 300 bedrooms
- Gatwick, North Terminal, 630 bedrooms
The new Gatwick hotel will be the first airport terminal-based budget hotel in the UK. It will provide customers with convenient access directly into the North Terminal itself. The move will reinforce Premier Inn as the largest UK airport hotel operator and shows confidence of a return to growth in air travel once the recession ends.
Mark Anderson, Commercial & Property Director, Whitbread, said: "As air travel returns to long-term growth, we see opportunities to build our presence at airports. The success of the budget airlines has shown that there is an increasing demand for low-cost travel and that includes accommodation.
"We are pleased to have reached this exciting agreement with the Arora Family Trust and are looking forward to exploring further opportunities together in the future."
Surinder Arora of Arora Hotels, said: "We are delighted to have reached this landmark agreement with Premier Inn which very much complements our existing Arora Hotels portfolio and presence at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports."
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Premier Inn's Airport Portfolio
Premier Inn's airport portfolio also includes hotels at Aberdeen, Birmingham (Birmingham NEC/Airport), Bristol (Bristol Airport), Dublin (Dublin Airport), East Midlands Airport, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, Leeds/Bradford (Leeds Bradford Airport), Liverpool (John Lennon Airport), Luton (Luton Airport), Manchester (Manchester Airport & Freight Terminal); Newcastle (Newcastle Airport) and Southampton (Southampton Airport).
Airport expansion - context: Demand for air travel in the south east of England is predicted to increase from 117 million passengers in 2000 to 300 million in 2030 (Source: BAA). Nationally, air travel demand at UK airports is forecast to grow from 241 million passengers per annum in 2007 to 465 million in 2030 (Source: DfT ‘UK air passenger demand and CO2 forecasts').
Heathrow has witnessed strong growth over recent decades, currently handling 68 million passengers and 477,000 flights a year (Source: DfT ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow'). By 2015/16 Heathrow will be handling in excess of 81m passengers (Source TRI: April 2009).
Gatwick is the UK's second largest airport and the world's tenth busiest international airport. Passenger traffic hit the 10 million mark in the 1990s and continued to grow at a phenomenal rate, reaching over 35 million in 2007. (Source: Gatwick Airport Guide).
Stansted is the third busiest airport in the UK, the fastest-growing major airport in Europe. The airport handles 22.3 million passengers per year. Stansted is the 46th busiest airport in the world and one of Europe's fastest growing international airports (Source: BAA Stansted).
For further media information, contact:
Premier Inn
Paul Browne or Graeme Buck: Camargue, tel 020 7636 7366
E-mail: pbrowne@camarguepr.com / gbuck@camarguepr.com
Arora Hotels & The Arora Family Trust
John Donaldson, tel: 01293 597703
E-mail: johndonaldson@arorainternational.com
Notes to editors:
Premier Inn
Award winning Premier Inn is the UK's biggest and fastest-growing hotel brand with 580 budget hotels and more than 40,000 rooms across the UK. Rooms are available from just £29. Premier Inn bedrooms feature an en-suite bathroom, TV, and internet access for business guests. Premier Inn offers customers a ‘Good Night Guarantee' of a good quality room, comfortable surroundings and friendly service, which is unique amongst Britain's leading hotel chains.
Premier Inn was the first Britain-wide hotel group to sign up with national tourist board VisitBritain; this means Premier Inn is now part of a new quality assessment scheme, specially created for budget accommodation.
In 2008 Premier Inn launched in Dubai and will be opening in India later this year. On a domestic front, Premier Inn is set to be the largest provide of budget hotels in London by the 2012 Olympics.
http://www.premierinn.com
Arora Hotels & The Arora Family Trust
Arora Hotels is a luxury, independent hotel company owned and founded by Surinder Arora in 1999. It is the UK's leading specialist hotelier to the airline industry and one of the fastest growing private hotel companies in the UK.
The Arora Family Trust owns a portfolio of 16 hotels with over 6,000 bedrooms located at Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow and Stansted airports as well as Manchester city-centre. The flagship Sofitel London Heathrow (directly connected to Terminal 5), Sofitel London Gatwick (directly connected to the North Terminal) and Mercure London Gatwick operate under franchise agreements with Accor Hospitality.
Each of its hotels is Investors In People accredited. The company also has interests in the internationally renowned Wentworth Club and recently purchased Wycombe Airpark, Buckinghamshire - a private airfield and base of the British Airways Flying Club.
In addition to hotel interests, The Arora Family Trust owns a large property portfolio predominantly located at key UK airports.
http://www.arorainternational.com/
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