Gatwick South Terminal map: levels, gates and the station link

Gatwick numbers its floors in tens, and the South Terminal turns on one of them: Level 20. That single level carries the check-in hall, the arrivals concourse and the covered walkway to the railway station, which is why the building feels simpler than its size suggests. Level 30 above it holds security and the mezzanine of the departure lounge; the main airside floor spreads back out on Level 20 beyond the scanners. Down at Level 00, the lower forecourt handles the coaches, local buses and the car rental centre.

So the pattern is the opposite of a climb: arrive at concourse level, go up one floor for security, and come back down into the departure lounge. The building is the original 1958 terminal grown outwards, and at about 160,000 square metres it is the bigger of Gatwick's two; how it relates to the North Terminal, the runway and the car parks is on the Gatwick airport map.

The railway station is part of the terminal, and it is the reason South is the front door for most rail passengers. Seven platforms, all step-free, sit under the station concourse, and the covered walkway runs from there straight into Level 20, about five minutes from the platforms to either departures or arrivals. A train leaves on average every four minutes, so the walkway is many people's first and last sight of Gatwick; the station guide covers the platforms, operators and tickets from the rail side.

The shuttle to the North Terminal boards close to the station, signed from the concourse: free, driverless, every five minutes through the day and every ten between 23:00 and 06:00, with the 1.2km crossing taking about two minutes. If your flight leaves from North, build the ride into your timing, roughly ten minutes door to door with the walks at each end. The terminal shuttle guide has the boarding points and step-free detail, and the terminal lookup confirms which building your airline uses before you commit to either.

Check-in fills the long hall on Level 20, split into zones lettered A to K with a premium area at Zone A. Screens above each zone show the day's airline allocations, and they move with demand, so trust the screens over memory. Around 35 airlines use the building, led by British Airways, whose bag drop works from the Zone A end; the South Terminal guide carries the full roster and the check-in guide the opening windows by airline.

The standing advice is to arrive at least two hours before departure, with desks typically opening four hours ahead for long-haul, three for European and two for UK and Ireland flights. Walking in from the station, the hall is directly ahead of the walkway on the same level, so the station-to-queue time is a couple of minutes, one of the South Terminal's genuine conveniences.

Security sits one floor up on Level 30, directly above the check-in hall. The entrance carries the standard lanes, Fast Track (pre-bookable from £6) and a dedicated assistance lane by the Assisted Travel desk; the special assistance guide explains the support available. Clearing the scanners leaves you on the mezzanine level, where the six South Terminal lounges cluster along one corridor (the South Terminal lounges page walks it room by room), with the main departure lounge floor below on Level 20.

The gates hang off three piers: Pier 1 carries gates 1 to 5, and Piers 2 and 3 carry the rest, numbered from 10 up to 95. Every gate screen shows a walking time, and the far ends of the two big piers are a genuine walk, so treat the screen's number as a departure time for your feet rather than a suggestion.

Arrivals runs as a short sequence on the way back to Level 20: passport control first, then the international reclaim hall with belts numbered 1 to 10, then customs, and out onto the arrivals concourse. The concourse is compact, with the international and domestic exit doors a short walk apart, so meeting someone is easy: wait within sight of the doors, and check the live arrivals board to confirm the flight is landing at South rather than North before you set off.

Collecting by car, skip the forecourt cameras: the Express Pick-Up bays on the ground floor of Car Park 3 run at short stay rates a short walk from the doors, and the long stay car park's two-hour free window with its free bus absorbs a delayed flight for nothing. The pick-up guide compares the options with current rates.

The forecourt outside is the drop-off zone, camera-enforced at £10 for up to ten minutes; the sat-nav code is RH6 0NP, and the drop-off guide covers the charge and the free alternative. The short stay multi-storeys, Car Parks 1, 2 and 3, stand about a four-minute covered walk from check-in, with premium bays closer and the commuter season-ticket parking on the same station side; South Terminal parking compares everything on this half of the airport. One level down, the Level 00 lower forecourt takes the road transport: coaches use stops 1 and 5, the local Metrobus routes call at the same forecourt, and the car rental centre sits just outside the doors.

Two hotels are inside the building itself, a South Terminal quirk worth knowing from the map: Bloc sits landside on the departures level, a minute's walk from security, and YOTELAIR is under a minute from arrivals, with the Hilton connected by covered walkway on the same side. The details live with the South Terminal guide and the hotel pages; for the floor plan's purposes, the point is that you can sleep, check in, fly and land without ever leaving this one building and its station.