London Gatwick Intro
Gatwick Airport, officially London Gatwick (LGW), is the second biggest of the five airports serving London after Heathrow. It is located in Crawley, in West Sussex, about 5km north of the town centre, and about 46km (28 miles) south of London. Although much less complex than Heathrow, Gatwick is nevertheless a huge airport - the second biggest in the United Kingdom, and the world's biggest airport using just one runway. Gatwick was opened by Queen Elizabeth II exactly fifty years and a day ago, on 9 June, 1958 (at time of writing, June 10, 2008).
Gatwick Airport has two terminals, namely North and South Terminal. Both terminals are served with a variety of transport links including rails, bus and taxis, with parking space which are quite limited.
Arriving at London Gatwick Airport
The following information is for the use of visitors arriving in London through London Gatwick Airport. First of all, find out the terminal building you are arriving in. The procedure through London Gatwick is quite straightforward, and can be summarized into the following steps:
 London Gatwick Airport
Photo Credit: Pam Brophy, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0
1. Upon getting out of the aircraft, follow the sign pointing to Arrivals
2. International Arrivals go through Passport Control. (Arrivals from United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Ireland go straight to Baggage Reclaim.) Passport Control comprises two sections, one for nationals of EU and Britain, another for all other nationals. You will be expected to show a valid passport which will not expire during your stay in the United Kingdom. Please be aware that some times, it may take a while to go through Passport Controls when the queues are long.
To meet aviation security arrangements recently introduced by the UK government, arriving and departing passengers for South Terminal are segregated at Pier 1, Gates 100-109. This is so that all UK and Ireland passengers arriving into the UK can be identified and distinguished from those departing. Arriving passengers will notice their image is recorded onto a video still camera as they leave the aircraft. On leaving the baggage reclaim area the image is monitored and checked on a computer screen by a member of BAA Gatwick's security team. This new procedure applies to all UK and Ireland arriving passengers. No other information is held and the video image is destroyed within 24 hours, meeting requirements set out in the Data Protection Act.
3. Once out of Passport Control, follow the sign to Baggage Reclaim. Look for the right carousel by your Flight Number on the Information Screens. Trolleys are available for your use. These are coin operated as of 9 June, 2008. You can use £1, €1 and US$0.25 coins. Your airline is responsible for your luggage until you pick it up. If it is damaged or missing, contact your airline representative.
4. Having collected your baggage, go through Customs Clearance. If you arrived from a European Union country, use the blue exit. If you arrived from a non-European Union country, use the green channel if you have nothing to declare. Otherwise, or if you're in doubt, use the red channel.
5. You exit Customs into Gatwick's Arrival Concourse. A variety of transport options are available for you to leave the airport.
Terminal Transfer
You can move between North and South Terminal by boarding the Gatwick Airport Transit, a three-car driverless mass-transit train that moves on a 1.2km long elevated two-way track. The journey between the two terminals take about 2 minutes (to be precise, 1 min 56 sec). It runs every 3 minutes during peak period and every 6 minutes during non-peak periods.
Getting Out of London Gatwick Airport
You have many different transport options to leave Gatwick Airport. This includes taking the train, the bus, taxi and by car. Let's look at each of these options:
Leaving Gatwick by train
Leaving Gatwick by bus
Leaving Gatwick by taxi
Leaving Gatwick by car
At time of writing Gatwick Airport is undergoing a re-design of the forecourts of South Terminal, to cater to the growing number of passengers and to create a safer and cleaner environment for them. To accommodate the re-design, some changes are in place on vehicle access to the terminal. Click here for details of the changes.
The map below gives an idea of the location of these two terminal buildings at Gatwick.
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London Travel Tips is researched and written by Timothy Tye, universally known as Tim. The information provided is in goodwill and is believed to be correct and up-to-date at time of writing. We disclaim responsible for its usage, and encourage users to recheck the information before their trip. Some photos are provided by Panoramio. Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners. They may only be used under the terms & conditions specified by Panoramio. Photos by third-party owners are captioned and attributed. Photographs that belong to Tim are copyrighted and may not be reused unless you first obtain permission. All of Tim's photographs are available for commercial use under the following licensing terms. Tim is a Christian. Click here to know more about his beliefs.
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