The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October
1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an
English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman
conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) northwest
of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a
decisive Norman victory.
Sussex is a
historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the
ancient Kingdom of Sussex. The name derives from the Kingdom of Sussex, which
was founded, according to legend, by Ælle of Sussex in AD 477. Around 827, it
was absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex and subsequently into the kingdom of
England. It has the famous airport
Gatwick. The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an
aerodrome in the late 1920s. The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from
the site in 1933, and the first terminal, "The Beehive", was built in
1935.
Gatwick Airport
is a major international airport near Crawley in West Sussex, southeast
England, 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London. It is the second-busiest
airport by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom, after Heathrow
Airport. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe. Until 2017, it was
the busiest single-use runway airport in the world, covering a total area of 674
hectares (1,670 acres). Gatwick opened
as an aerodrome in the late 1920s; it has been in use for commercial flights
since 1933. The airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South
Terminal, but operates as a single-runway airport, using a main runway.
Now comes the news that Gatwick Airport has been
sold to France's Vinci for £2.9 billion, just days after reports of drone
sightings closed its runway and caused chaos for thousands of passengers.Under
the terms of the deal, a consortium led by US investment fund Global
Infrastructure Partners (GIP) will sell a 50.01% stake to Vinci Airports.The
UK’s second biggest airport struck the deal with Vinci, who operates over 40 airports
globally across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
It comes after the Sussex airport was heavily
disrupted in the run-up to Christmas, after reports of drone sightings caused
havoc for Christmas travellers.Around 1,000 Gatwick flights were cancelled or diverted
across three days last week after drones were spotted inside the airport
perimeter.The crisis ruined the pre-Christmas travel plans of tens of thousands
of people.However, there were subsequent suggestions that there may never have
been any drones at Gatwick, although police later played them down, saying they
were down to "poor communications".Michael McGhee, GIP partner, said:
"We expect the transaction to be completed by the middle of next year,
with the senior leadership team remaining in place."Their focus, along
with everyone at Gatwick, obviously remains on doing their very best for
customers over the busy holiday period after the challenges of recent
days."
Media reports suggest that the senior management team at Gatwick will stay in
post following the deal, with chairman Sir David Higgins, chief exec Stewart
Wingate and finance chief Nick Dunn continuing in their roles.GIP will continue
to manage the remaining 49.99% interest in Gatwick after the transaction closes
in the second quarter.Nicolas Notebaert, president of Vinci Airports, is quoted
as saying : "As Gatwick's new industrial partner, Vinci Airports will
support and encourage growth of traffic, operational efficiency and leverage
its international expertise in the development of commercial activities to
further improve passenger satisfaction and experience."
Warren Hastings ( 1732 – 1818), an English
statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal),
the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto
Governor-General of India from 1773 to 1785. In 1787, he was accused of
corruption and impeached, but after a long trial, he was acquitted in 1795. Hastings joined the British East India Company in 1750
as a clerk and sailed out to India, reaching Calcutta
With regards – S.Sampathkumar
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