About Gatwick Airport

In this article, we will know about Gatwick Airport. It is a major international airport in London, United Kingdom, and the second busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. Gatwick is Britain’s second-busiest airport by passenger traffic and the world’s fourth-busiest single-runway airport in terms of overall passenger numbers, with 34.6 million passengers using the airport in 2014. 

Gatwick is owned by the Gatwick Airport Limited Partnership, which consists of three shareholders: Global Infrastructure Partners (57%) Meridiam Infrastructure (22%) and North Highland (20%).

It is located south of Central London, near Crawley, West Sussex, and is surrounded by several motorways including the M23 motorway. Gatwick Airport is a major international airport in south-east England, 29 miles (47 km) south of Central London and 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Crawley. It has two parallel east–west runways along with four operational terminals on a site that covers 12.27 square kilometres (4.77 sq mi).

Gatwick Airport has two terminals – South and North. The South Terminal opened in 1953, while the North Terminal was opened in 1998. Both terminals are connected via an underground walkway which takes around ten minutes to walk between them, although there are lifts if you don’t feel like walking. There is also a footbridge that passengers can use to get between them if they wish to avoid the walkway entirely.

It is the second busiest airport by passenger traffic in the United Kingdom behind London Heathrow Airport. Gatwick opened as a civil airport in 1936, but was requisitioned by the Air Ministry during World War II. It houses more than 50 airlines operating from it and serves more than 200 destinations.

Gatwick is a base for EasyJet, Monarch Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways. As of April 2019, Gatwick has a total of 43 carriers operating from its two terminals: 22 scheduled services to destinations in Europe, North Africa and Asia-Pacific as well as 21 charter airlines operating from all over the world.

Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s, and has been in use for commercial flights since 1933. The airport has two parallel east–west runways along with a single north–south runway. It operates as a single-runway airport, using a roundabout for air traffic control clearance between the north and south runways during takeoffs and landings.

The airport has its own railway station (Gatwick Airport railway station), providing services direct to London Victoria via Gatwick Express; other rail services are provided by Southern, Thameslink and Great Western Railway (train operating companies).