Gatwick arrivals: today's flights and what happens after landing

Find the flight by airline and origin, then read across to the terminal column. The board shows the published schedule, refreshed through the day, which makes it the planning view: use it to check the terminal and the timetabled landing time before you set off or head out to meet someone. For the exact position on the day (landed, delayed, diverted, and which belt the bags are on), the operating airline's app tracks the individual flight and pushes alerts straight to your phone. If the flight you are tracking has slipped badly, what to do about a Gatwick delay covers rights, rebooking and compensation.

Flying out instead? Today's departures is the mirror of this page, and the rest of the flight cluster (airlines, destinations, connections) hangs off the flight information hub.

Gatwick handled just over 43 million passengers in 2024, all of them through two terminals, and the airline decides which one your flight uses, not the route. easyJet, the airport's biggest carrier by far, arrives at the North Terminal only. British Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling, Norwegian and Jet2 all use the South Terminal. TUI Airways splits by flight number: flights prefixed BY come into South, flights prefixed TOM into North. Long-haul carriers split too, with Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines at North, and Norse Atlantic and China Southern at South. The full carrier-by-carrier answer is on North or South for your flight; when a booking involves a codeshare, trust the booking confirmation over the marketing airline's usual home, because allocations move.

Getting the terminal right matters most when you are meeting someone, since the two arrivals areas are a shuttle ride apart. If you do end up at the wrong one, the free terminal shuttle crosses in 2 to 3 minutes, runs 24 hours a day, and needs no ticket; allow 10 to 15 minutes door to door with the walks at each end.

Arriving at Gatwick to connect onward? There is no airside link between the terminals: a cross-terminal connection means border control where your route requires it, the shuttle, and a fresh pass through security. Gatwick's own minimums are 60 min for a same-terminal connection and 90 min across terminals, and airlines may demand more. The full walkthrough, including self-connect bookings and what happens to bags, is on the connecting flights guide.

On an international arrival the sequence is fixed: passport control first, then baggage reclaim, then customs, then out through the doors into the landside arrivals area. Domestic arrivals from within the UK skip passport control and go straight to the reclaim hall. How long the whole run takes is mostly decided at passport control; the sections below cover each stage in turn.

Passport control and the eGates

Passport control at Gatwick splits into two areas: one for British, EU, EEA and Swiss passport holders, one for all other nationalities. For most of the queue, the eGates do the work: you can use them if you are 10 or over and hold a chipped biometric passport from the UK, an EU member state, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea or the United States. Children aged 10 to 17 must go through with an accompanying adult. Have the passport open at the photo page and out of any cover, and take off hats and sunglasses before you reach the gate; a failed scan means joining the staffed queue instead.

Travellers with children under 10, non-biometric passports, or a passport from any other country see a Border Force officer at the desks instead, and that queue is the one that stretches when several wide-bodies land together. The eligibility list, the eVisa and stamp edge cases, and what to do when an eGate rejects you are all on the Gatwick passport control guide.

Baggage reclaim

After passport control, follow the yellow arrivals and baggage reclaim signs and check the screens for your flight's carousel; in the South Terminal the international belts are numbered 1 to 10. Oversized items (pushchairs, sports kit, instruments) usually appear beside the main belt assigned to the flight rather than on it. If a bag has not appeared by the time the belt stops, report it to your airline's handling desk inside the reclaim hall before you pass through customs; starting the claim from outside is slower. Anything left behind on the aircraft or in the terminal goes through Gatwick lost property rather than the airline desk.

Customs

Customs at Gatwick is two channels: green for nothing to declare, red when you are carrying goods over your allowance or anything restricted. There is no blue channel any more; arrivals from the EU use the same green or red choice as everyone else, and officers do stop people in the green channel for spot checks. Current allowances for alcohol, tobacco and cash, and the list of goods that must go through red, are on the UK customs guide.

Each terminal has its own landside arrivals area, and passengers exit into it through one set of doors after customs. In the North Terminal, arrivals is at ground level, with a Pret, an M&S Simply Food, a WHSmith and a Boots landside for the wait. In the South Terminal, arrivals shares a level with the walkway to the railway station, so you can step off a train and be standing at the doors within about five minutes. Agree the terminal and a landmark before the flight takes off; the two halls are a shuttle ride apart, and a vague "meet you at arrivals" costs half an hour when one of you guesses wrong.

Time the drive around the passport-to-customs run, not the landing time. Allow 30 to 45 minutes after touchdown for a typical international arrival with hold luggage, less for hand-luggage-only travellers on eGate passports, and more at peak or when the flight lands alongside several others. The scheduled time on the board above plus that buffer is a better target than the wheels-down moment.

By car, you have three realistic options. The Express Pick-Up bays sit nearest the doors (Car Park 6, Level 4 at the North Terminal; Car Park 3, ground floor at the South Terminal) and charge short stay rates, £8 for up to 30 minutes, with the rule that you stay with the vehicle. The free option is a long stay car park: the first 2 hours cost nothing and the transfer bus runs to the terminal every 10 to 12 minutes, which is the sensible play for a delayed inbound. What you should not do is wait on the terminal forecourt, where the camera-enforced £10 drop-off charge applies with a 30-minute cap. Bay locations, rates and the walking routes are on the Gatwick pick-up guide.

Gatwick's escape routes are genuinely good, and they all start within a few minutes of the arrivals doors. The station is the headline: it sits inside the South Terminal, about five minutes' walk from arrivals, with a train leaving on average every 4 minutes.

By train

From the South Terminal, follow the station signs from arrivals; from the North Terminal, take the free shuttle first and budget 10 to 15 minutes door to door. Three operators run to London. Gatwick Express is the non-stop option to Victoria, 31 minutes, every 15 minutes, £24.10 single (10% less booked online). Southern covers the same Victoria route with a couple of stops in about 33 minutes for roughly £15 walk-up, and Thameslink runs through the centre to London Bridge, Blackfriars, Farringdon and St Pancras up to 8 times an hour. Contactless and Oyster are valid, and off-peak the pay-as-you-go single to a zone 1 station is about £10.70, cheaper than the roughly £15 walk-up ticket. The full comparison, including late-night patterns, is on Gatwick to London by every route; the station itself, its platforms and its step-free routes are covered under Gatwick train station.

By coach and bus

Coaches leave from the South Terminal's lower forecourt (stops 1 and 5) and from the lower level outside North Terminal arrivals. National Express runs to Victoria Coach Station in about 65 to 80 minutes from around £6 booked ahead, close to around the clock, and easyBus covers west London cheaply. Local Metrobus routes, four of them running 24 hours a day, serve Crawley and Horley from the same forecourts. Routes, fares and the airport-to-airport Heathrow link are on the Gatwick coach guide.

By taxi or hire car

Airport Cars Gatwick, the airport's official private hire operator, has booking kiosks in both arrivals areas, and a pre-booked driver meets you in the hall with a name board. Uber works from designated kerbside zones rather than the hall. A pre-booked saloon to central London commonly starts around £70; get a live quote rather than trusting a printed figure, and see taxis at Gatwick for the operators and the fare logic. Car hire desks are at the South Terminal's car rental centre on the lower forecourt and a short signed walk from North Terminal arrivals past Jubilee House.