Operating for more than 50 years, Gatwick has two terminals (North and South), and sees an average of 55 take-offs and landings per hour on just one strip of tarmac.

After BAA was forced to sell the airport by the Competition Commission in 2009, it was bought by GIP (Global Infrastructure Partners), which proceeded to pump £1.2 billion worth of investment into upgrading it.

Intent on boosting its operations, it has been undergoing a number of improvements, from installing cutting-edge technology to bettering its transport links, not to mention putting together a serious bid for a second runway, which would enable it to increase passenger volumes from 38 million to 95 million a year by 2025.

Here we look at recent changes and what’s upcoming at the airport.

SOUTH TERMINAL

Infrastructure

Pier One, which dated back to the early 1960s, has been knocked down and is being rebuilt in time for next summer. It will offer runway views through floor-to-ceiling windows from waiting areas by the gates.

Technology improvements

This year new self-service bag-drop kiosks have been installed for the airport’s largest carrier, Easyjet.

Michael Ibbitson, chief information officer for Gatwick, says: “The concept is being operated by Easyjet but is available for all airlines [Norwegian installed an early incarnation in 2011]. The idea is that you should be able to drop your bag in about 55 seconds.”

Easyjet has operations across both terminals, and Ibbitson says a further 50 self-service kiosks are being installed in the North Terminal so that the airline can run its entire operation on automated bag-drop.

New hotels

Upstairs, by security, is the new landside Bloc hotel (blochotels.com). Open since April, it has 244 rooms ranging in size from 9.5 sqm to 22 sqm, as well as a 32 sqm presidential suite. Each room come with free wifi, double beds with Egyptian cotton sheets, walk-in rainshowers, an automatic check-out facility, and blinds (in rooms with windows).

Unlike the Yotel, which you can book for slots of as little as four hours, Bloc rooms are only bookable for overnight stays (starting from £59) or walk-in “day lets” from 7am to 4pm if there is availability (£29 upwards).

Security improvements

The security area has undergone a major revamp in recent years, aimed at enabling all passengers to pass through within five minutes.

“Anonymous face recognition” cameras that photograph passengers at each stage of the process allow the airport to monitor whether that target is being reached.

The same technology has been fitted in immigration, which now has 15 e-gates for people with biometric passports. Similar face recognition technology will be installed in the North Terminal from this autumn.

If you are concerned about privacy, Ibbitson says: “We store information temporarily as you pass through the airport but our systems automatically delete all the data within 24 hours. Plus, we convert it to a string of numbers that no one else could re-engineer.”

Shopping

The South Terminal underwent a £41 million retail overhaul last year, with 22 new or refreshed stores opening. Brands represented include Armani, Paul Smith, Missoni, Zegna, Longchamp, Michael Kors, Harrods and World of Whiskies.

Spencer Sheen, head of retail, says: “Aspinal of London, Ernest Jones, Snow and Rock, and Joules have opened their first airport branches with us.”

Lounges

For business people, Regus Express will open a landside lounge next to the Yotel this month, with meeting rooms, hot desks, free wifi, refreshments, computers, printers and showers, with entry from £39.

Shortly after, it will also launch a number of 4 sqm private “workboxes” airside in both terminals. Equipped with printers, computers, phones and wifi, they can be hired for £5 an hour or £10 a day.

All passengers in the airport get 45 minutes of free wifi and 4G connectivity.

NORTH TERMINAL

Infrastructure

In March, Pier Six saw the unveiling of a £6.4 million A380 stand (110) for the launch of Emirates’ superjumbo flights to Dubai (click here for a review). By the end of the year, Pier Five will be refurbished.

The major changes to the North Terminal will begin in 2015. Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick, says: “Next year we will be upgrading the North Terminal, putting in a new check-in and security area with state-of-the-art technology, and then upgrading the whole retail offering.”

Lounges

In July, No 1 Traveller (no1traveller.com) opened a second Gatwick facility called My Lounge.

The “loft-inspired” venue, which has a Scandinavian aesthetic, seats 50 guests and offers free wifi, snacks, wine, beer, a games room, daily papers and charge points.

Entry costs £16 when booked online, or £18 on arrival, and includes fast-track security access.

Restaurants and bars

Gatwick has upped its game when it comes to drinking and dining.

In 2012, it opened a branch of Jamie’s Italian, while last October it launched Middle Eastern eatery Comptoir Libanais, part of a chain owned by Tony Kitous.

Other outlets include Yo Sushi and a pop-up Hennessy cognac lounge.


GATWICK CONNECT

Since May, the airport has been quietly trialling an innovative new service called Gatwick Connect, designed to help passengers transferring from one airline to another.

Instead of having to check your bag in for a second time, you can leave it at the Gatwick Connect desks in baggage reclaim, where staff will process it for your connecting flight and issue you with your onward boarding pass.

At the moment, the free support is offered to anyone flying on Easyjet, Flybe, Norwegian, Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic and Wow. It does not include arranging new flights in the event of missed connections, however.

Gatwick Connect has so far been available to about 900,000 passengers but Ibbitson says another million could be using it.

TRAINS

Two train operators – Southern and First Capital Connect – currently offer services to the South Terminal from London Victoria and London Bridge, but from next July these will be combined under a new Govia Thameslink “super-franchise”, known as TSGN, that also encompasses Gatwick Express.

This will greatly improve connectivity, frequency and efficiency and will run 24 hours.

Wingate says: “It essentially means that by 2018 the number of train seats leaving Gatwick will have doubled thanks to Govia optimising the timetable and introducing 12-car rather than eight-car trains.”

Gatwick Express will see 108 new carriages installed by 2016, fitted with more seats per carriage. By 2019 there will be a train leaving Gatwick for London once every two and a half minutes. There will also be new direct services to Cambridge and Peterborough within five years.

Paying for tickets is also going to become easier. By the end of the year, the plan is for Gatwick to be part of the Oyster card network, meaning you will be able to tap in and out to pay just as you do on the Tube. Transport for London was unable to reveal any more details at the time we went to press.

Next year, Southern and Thameslink will be rolling out a similar smartcard system for mainline rail, known as the Key, which is already available on numerous Southern routes.

Passengers will be able to touch their contactless debit and credit cards on sensors at the ticket gates, which will debit the lowest-priced ticket amount from their account.

GATWICK’S EXPANSION PLANS

Gatwick wants to expand and has gone head-to-head with Heathrow in bidding for an additional runway to boost UK airport capacity.

Stewart Wingate reports that Gatwick added 21 slots last year, making 900 take-offs and landings on peak days.

“We plan at 55 movements per hour but can actually cope with 60,” he says, adding that he expects passenger volumes to reach 38 million this year (up from 31 million in 2010).

Gatwick serves more than 200 destinations, including 12 domestic and 40 long-haul, with Easyjet flying to more than 100.

“We have worked hard to look at emerging economies such as Turkey, Indonesia and Vietnam,” Wingate says.

Turkish Airlines now flies four times a day to Istanbul, Vietnam Airlines operates four-times weekly to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and Garuda Indonesia launched five flights a week to Jakarta via Amsterdam last month. Easyjet added twice-daily flights to Moscow in March.

At the same time, the airport has lost a couple of medium-haul routes – BA dropped Tunis last October, while this year Easyjet dropped Amman.

Following a short-lived Air Asia X service to Kuala Lumpur in 2011-12, low-cost has again gone long-haul.

In July, Norwegian started direct flights to New York JFK, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale on its new wifi-equipped B787s, for prices as low as £300 return including taxes. Next May it will double the JFK frequency from three- to six-times weekly, and the LAX service from two to four times a week.

Wingate says: “Heathrow can’t offer cheap fares to New York, for example, as its airport charges are already the highest in the world. Our charges are at a level where the legacy, the low-cost and the charter carriers can prosper. Our average charge is £9 per passenger, whereas Heathrow’s is £22.

“With a second runway, our charges would go to about £12-£15. The alternative would be that Heathrow gets the third runway at a cost of £18 billion and charges would increase to about £40 per passenger.”

He adds: “Our scheme would cost about £7.8 billion and see us grow to a passenger volume of 95 million annually. This would be more than Heathrow [72.3 million in 2013] because our runways could be operated in mixed mode [meaning planes could both land and take off on them].

“Ours would also be five years quicker to deliver – by 2025 – and would only affect 5 per cent of the people Heathrow affects with aircraft noise.”

gatwickairport.com