About Gatwick
Gatwick Airport, also known as London Gatwick, is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London. It is the second-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Heathrow. It is the world's most efficient single-runway airport.
While Gatwick has two runways, they are too close together to be used simultaneously for standard operations. Therefore, it effectively operates as a single-runway airport, handling up to 55 movements per hour at peak times. It serves as a base for easyJet, British Airways, and TUI Airways, catering to both leisure and business travelers.
The airport has two terminals, North and South, connected by an automated shuttle. It has excellent rail links to London via the Gatwick Express. Gatwick pioneered many low-cost carrier operations in the London area and continues to be a vital secondary hub for the capital.
Gatwick's ownership has passed through more hands than any other major British airport: BAA (later Heathrow Airport Holdings) was forced to sell it in 2009 after a Competition Commission finding of anti-competitive market dominance, since when it has been held by consecutive infrastructure funds including Global Infrastructure Partners, France's Vinci Airports (which purchased a 50.01 per cent stake in 2019 for 2.9 billion pounds) and various Australian and Canadian pension consortia. The airport's original grass strip opened in 1930 as a small aerodrome for the Surrey Aero Club and was named after the Gatwick Manor estate, whose 15th-century timber-framed manor house still stands 500 metres north of the North Terminal and now operates as a corporate events venue. Nightly noise-quota regulations set by the UK Department for Transport in 1993 limit night movements between 23:30 and 06:00 to 11,200 per year during summer and 3,250 in winter.