Connecting flights at Gatwick: how the transfer really works

Gatwick's own guidance is to allow at least 60 min between flights in the same terminal and at least 90 min when the flights use different terminals, and it lets airlines demand more. Those numbers assume a day going right: an on-time first flight, a short border queue, bags checked through or none at all, and no gate at the far end of a pier. Any single wobble eats the margin, which is why the minimums are the floor for a protected connection on one ticket, and nowhere near enough for a self-connect on two.

Book a connection tighter than the minimums and the airline can refuse to sell it; build one yourself tighter than that and nobody will stop you, which is exactly the problem. The distinction between those two situations, one ticket or two, runs through every section below.

However the booking is built, the physical route is the same:

1. Follow the arrivals flow off the aircraft and clear passport control if your route requires it (see the border section below).
2. Collect your bags at reclaim unless they are checked through to the final destination.
3. If the next flight leaves from the other terminal, ride the free shuttle: 2 minutes terminal to terminal, every few minutes, 24 hours a day. Allow 10 to 15 minutes door to door for the crossing.
4. Check in or drop bags for the second flight if you are carrying them, or if the airline needs to see you; with a boarding pass in hand and no bags, skip straight on.
5. Pass through security and head for the departure lounge screens.

The step most people misjudge is the last: security is a full repeat, queues included, not a shortcut lane for connectors. Confirm which terminal the second flight uses before you land if you can, from the booking or the terminal lookup, because learning it at the wrong end of the shuttle costs the crossing twice. The shuttle itself, boarding points included, is covered on the terminal shuttle guide.

Whether your bags fly on without you touching them is decided at the first check-in desk, not at Gatwick. On a single booking with an airline that through-checks (typically the long-haul carriers and their partners), the bag tag shows the final destination and you walk past reclaim. On anything else, and on any pair of separate bookings, the bags come out at Gatwick and go back in at a desk: allow reclaim time, the queue, and the airline's bag-drop deadline for the second flight, all inside your connection.

Ask at the first desk and read the tag before the bag disappears; the three-letter code on it should be your final airport, not LGW. Hand luggage sidesteps the whole question, which is why serious self-connectors travel cabin-only. Airline size and weight limits for both legs still apply, and they differ by carrier: the baggage allowances guide has the numbers.

Because the transfer is landside, most connections pass through UK border control. Arriving from an international flight and connecting to another international flight still means entering the UK first, through the eGates if your passport qualifies (age 10 plus, chipped passports from the UK, EU, EEA, Switzerland, and countries including the USA, Canada and Australia) or the staffed desks if not. Arriving from a UK domestic flight, there is no border to cross, and connecting onto a domestic flight after an international arrival means immigration first, then the domestic leg. The queue mechanics and the full eGate list live on the passport control guide.

The visa point catches people out precisely because Gatwick has no airside transit: if your nationality needs a visa to enter the UK, you need a Visitor in Transit visa to connect here, and the airport's own guidance is blunt that you cannot sort it after you arrive. Check the rules for your passport on gov.uk's transit visa checker before booking a Gatwick connection, not after.

Two separate bookings through Gatwick can undercut any through-fare, especially patched together from easyJet's network, and the airport's layout (one runway, everything close, a 2-minute shuttle) makes it one of the easier places to do it. The price is that the risk is all yours. Each ticket is its own contract: if the first flight lands late and you miss the second, the second airline owes you nothing, and your booking is treated as a no-show. If the first airline caused the delay and it was within its control, your UK261 rights (care, and sometimes compensation) apply to that first flight only; the delays and cancellations guide covers what that is worth.

The mitigations are unglamorous and effective: leave hours, not minutes (half a day is not paranoid on a route you cannot afford to lose), go cabin-only so no bag can miss the cut, prefer same-terminal pairings, and buy travel insurance that explicitly covers missed connections on separate tickets. Some booking sites sell Gatwick self-connect itineraries with a connection guarantee attached; read exactly what the guarantee rebooks before you rely on it. On the day it goes wrong, Gatwick's Service Centre may be able to help with alternative arrangements, but the airport cannot conjure a free seat on a full flight.

Long gaps are the pleasant version of the same maths. Once landside (which you are anyway), you can leave bags at left luggage and reach central London in about 30 minutes by train for the price of a contactless tap; the Gatwick to London guide has the options. Overnight self-connects have a whole page of their own in sleeping at Gatwick, from the by-the-hour cabins inside the South Terminal to the landside all-nighter. However you fill the gap, the rest of the flight cluster lives on the flight information hub.