Gatwick airport services: every facility, by journey stage

Both Gatwick terminals are complete airports in their own right, so nearly every service exists twice, once at the North Terminal and once at the South Terminal. What follows is grouped by the trip rather than the building: the things you do before you fly, the things you might need while you wait, the extra help some travellers want, and the checks you clear when you land. Each item links to a full guide with the prices, locations and opening hours.

If you only remember three things, make them these. The free wifi covers the whole airport and needs only an email to join. Security is fast the great majority of the time but heaves in the 05:00 to 08:00 departure bank, so timing matters more than any trick. And on arrival, the eGates now open to children as young as eight, which pulls most families out of the slow queue. Everything else is below.

The departure sequence has its own chain of services, and they run in order. Check-in covers the desk opening windows, the airline bag-drop deadlines that actually end holidays, and the free day-before bag drop that clears an early morning. The baggage allowance guide sets out what each airline lets you carry, cabin and hold, and the universal 32kg ceiling, before the gate sizer does it for you.

Then comes the checkpoint. Security explains the process on the current CT scanners, what stays in the bag and what comes off, and the honest queue numbers; the liquid rules cover the 2-litre allowance that replaced the old 100ml regime in 2026, with the metal-flask and return-flight catches. If the queue worries you, Fast Track sells a shorter lane from £6, and the guide is candid about when it is worth it and when the free lanes are quick enough anyway.

Some services are for anyone in the building, departing or not. Left luggage stores bags by the hour or day at staffed desks in both terminals, useful for a long layover or a last day in London; lost property is the flip side, the online route to trace something left behind, run by the same operator. Currency exchange covers the ChangeGroup desks and cash machines, and is honest that the walk-up counter is the worst rate on offer, with better options set out.

For staying comfortable, wifi and charging gets you online free and finds you a socket, and the smoking areas guide is blunt that lighting up happens only outside, before security, with one paid airside exception. Both terminals also carry the everyday shops you expect, from a Boots to a WHSmith, alongside the restaurants and cafes where much of the waiting actually gets done.

Two groups of travellers get services built around them. Special assistance is free and carries you from the kerb to the aircraft door and back, booked through your airline at least 48 hours ahead; it covers wheelchairs, help boarding, assistance dogs and guidance through the airport, plus the Sunflower lanyard that Gatwick invented for non-visible disabilities. It is one of the airport's genuinely strong points, with a dedicated security lane and help points across both terminals.

Families get their own set of shortcuts, gathered in travelling with children: the dedicated family security lanes, baby changing and feeding rooms throughout both terminals, a generous easement on carrying baby milk and food, pushchairs taken all the way to the gate, and the free Kids zone in the North Terminal to burn off energy before boarding. Between the two guides, most of the stress goes out of a trip with a pram or a wheelchair.

Landing has its own two checkpoints, and both have a guide here. Passport control explains the two arrivals routes, who can use the eGates (from age 8 as of 8 July 2026, with a biometric passport), how to prepare so the gate reads you first time, and the £15 Fast Track for the staffed-desk queue. After the border and baggage reclaim comes UK customs, which sets out the green and red channels and the full duty-free allowances: how much alcohol, tobacco and shopping you can bring into Great Britain, and the £10,000 cash rule.

Those two, plus left luggage and lost property for anything that goes wrong on the way out of the building, are the arrival side of the airport in full. For tracking the inbound flight itself, or working out where to meet someone, the flights and parking hubs in the Related block below carry the boards and the pick-up guide.