Gatwick North Terminal map: the building level by level

Gatwick's maps number the floors in tens, and the North Terminal uses four of them. Level 00 is the ground floor: arrivals, the forecourt exits, the car hire desks, and a landside run of shops including Pret, M&S Simply Food, WHSmith and Boots. Level 10 above it is the connections floor, where the shuttle from the South Terminal lands, alongside self-service check-in kiosks, the Special Assistance desk and the left luggage desk. Level 20 is the main event: the full check-in hall, the security entrance and, beyond it, the lower floor of the departure lounge, whose upper floor is Level 30.

The practical rule of the building: departing passengers head up, arriving passengers stay low. If you walk in from the forecourt, check-in is above you; if you arrive by shuttle, it is one level up; and once you are through security you never come back down landside. How the terminal sits within the wider airport, with the station, car parks and runway, is on the Gatwick airport map.

The check-in hall spans Level 20, split into five zones lettered A to E, with a self-service area at Zone A and a separate bank of kiosks one floor below on the shuttle level. Screens above each zone show which airlines are using it that day, and with easyJet's entire Gatwick operation moving through this building, allocations shift with demand: trust the screens over where you checked in last time. The North Terminal guide carries the airline roster in full, and the terminal lookup settles whether you should be in this building at all.

Desks typically open four hours before long-haul flights, three before European and two before UK and Ireland departures, and the airport's standing advice is to arrive at least two hours ahead. If you only have hand luggage, the kiosk-and-straight-to-security route through this floor is quick; with bags, the zone screens tell you where the queue starts.

Security is on the same floor as check-in, Level 20, so the landside journey ends without a staircase. The entrance feeds the standard lanes plus Fast Track (pre-bookable from £6), a premium lane, and dedicated assistance and family lanes; the special assistance guide covers the help available from kerb to gate. Through the scanners, the departure lounge opens over two levels, 20 and 30, with the lounges clustered in their own pavilion off the main floor.

The gates hang off three piers. Pier 4 carries gates 45 to 55, Pier 5 carries gates 557 to 574, and Pier 6 carries gates 101 to 113. Pier 6 is the memorable walk: it is reached by a bridge nearly 200 metres long that crosses a live taxiway, with aircraft passing beneath you, the longest bridge of its kind in the world when it opened in 2005. Every gate screen shows a walking time, and the pier ends are genuinely far, so move when the screen says to, not when the queue at the coffee counter clears.

Arrivals works at ground level. Passport control and baggage reclaim sit inside the building, and the exit doors deliver you onto Level 00's concourse with the forecourt straight outside, car hire desks to hand and the landside shops around you. Meeting someone off a flight, wait within sight of the international arrivals exit on this floor; the live arrivals board shows the flight's status and confirms it is landing at North rather than South.

Collecting by car, do not idle on the forecourt: the Express Pick-Up bays in Car Park 6, Level 4, run at short stay rates and put you a lift ride from the arrivals doors, and the two-hour free window in the long stay car park is the cheaper way to absorb a delay. The pick-up guide weighs the options with the current rates.

Level 10 is the floor to know if you are connecting or travelling light. The shuttle to the South Terminal boards here, free, driverless and running every five minutes for most of the day (every ten overnight), covering the 1.2km in about two minutes; the terminal shuttle guide has the detail, and the ride matters because the railway station is part of the South Terminal, so every train journey from North starts with it. The station guide picks up from the other end.

The same floor holds the left luggage desk, run by the Excess Baggage Company next to the Costa Coffee, open 04:00 to 22:00 daily and charging per item (the left luggage guide has the price ladder); the Special Assistance desk, the place to present if you have booked help; and the self-service kiosk bank for airlines that use them. Once airside, the six North Terminal lounges cluster in a pavilion off the main departure floor, with a lift to the upper pair; the North Terminal lounges page maps that corridor room by room.

The forecourt outside Level 00 is the drop-off zone, camera-enforced at £10 for up to ten minutes; set the sat nav to RH6 0PJ and the drop-off guide explains the charge and the free alternative. The short stay multi-storeys, Car Parks 5 and 6, stand opposite the terminal about a four-minute covered walk from check-in, with premium parking closer still and height limits worth knowing in advance (1.8m in Car Park 5, 2.1m in Car Park 6). North Terminal parking compares every product on this side of the airport.

The long stay buses use the lower forecourt: the bus into the car park picks up at stop 1, at the northern end close to the international arrivals exit, and drops you back at stop 8 on Furlong Way when you return. Coaches stop on the lower level outside international arrivals too. Walkable hotels round out the map: the Sofitel connects to the terminal on foot, with the Premier Inn North and Hampton by Hilton a short walk beyond the forecourt.