London Gatwick Airport

Gatwick's aviation story began in the 1930s, when the circular 'Beehive' terminal of 1936 became the world's first round airport terminal, linked to its own railway station by an underground walkway.

After wartime RAF service, the airport was completely rebuilt and reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1958 as a modern gateway designed around direct mainline rail access, a pioneering piece of intermodal planning. Gatwick grew through the package-holiday boom as London's charter and leisure airport, adding the North Terminal in 1988 to complement the original South Terminal.

Operating on a single runway, Gatwick squeezed out more movements per hour than any comparable airport, earning its title as the busiest single-runway airport in the world. It became easyJet's largest base and a major British Airways leisure operation.

Long-haul low-cost experiments from Laker's Skytrain onward repeatedly used Gatwick as their stage. Sold by BAA in 2009 and now majority-owned by VINCI, the airport has pursued approval to bring its standby northern runway into routine use, a plan that advanced through the UK planning process in 2025 and would lift capacity substantially.

Gatwick operates one of aviation's most intensively used runways, 08R/26L, with a standby northern runway that can only be used when the main strip is closed because the two are too close for simultaneous operations. Two terminals, North and South, handle a traffic mix dominated by easyJet, its largest base anywhere, alongside British Airways' leisure network, TUI, Vueling and long-haul carriers.

The Gatwick Express and Thameslink trains run directly into the South Terminal. Peak summer mornings see departures released with famous precision to keep the single-runway schedule intact.