London’s once-awful airport is Europe’s most improved

The airport

London Gatwick Airport (South Terminal)

Facelift… Gatwick Aiport.

The flight

WizzAir flight W4 6006 from London Gatwick to Rome Fiumicino.

The arrival

Given a mini-cab ride from central London costs a hefty £69 ($138) or more, I opt for the train, which takes 44 minutes after making a few stops along the way from St Pancras, but costs only £14.40 ($30). From the station, it’s a quick trip up an escalator to a hall brimming with lifts, plus a big screen saying where to go for which airline. There’s a brief flash of open air after getting off the train, but that’s the last of the daylight for quite some time.

The look

Gatwick’s South Terminal reopened after a two-year break in 2022, and had a significant sprucing up in the process. Design-wise, it attempts nothing to distinguish it from any other airport in the world, but while it looks generic, it also looks new. Floor tiles sparkle – especially the black ones with a twinkling star effect – and there’s no sense of ground-down tiredness. Importantly, the signposting is bang on. Everything is big and clear, making it difficult to get lost.

Check-in

I already have my boarding pass, so it’s straight through to security. A brief look around shows no horrendous queues – Turkish Airlines is the worst at about 30 passengers deep – but this is in the mid-January quiet season.

Security

New look, new feel.

Hooray! The fancy new machines have arrived, which means an end to the tedious rigmarole of unpacking my bag to take out little liquids and laptop. Unfortunately, I am an idiot, and forget to take out my full-to-the-brim water bottle, meaning the bag goes for secondary screening. Breaking all known character traits of airport security employees, the man who checks my bag not only offers to go and empty the bottle out the back, but tells me exactly where I can refill it from a fountain once I’m air side. Despite me being an idiot, the whole process takes five minutes, possibly the quickest I’ve gone through security in two-and-a-half decades.

Food + drink

Big Smoke Taphouse.

There’s an admirable array of food options in the departure lounge, with chains such as Wagamama, Pret, Starbucks and Pizza Express. More interesting are the Big Smoke Taphouse, which sells locally brewed beers and wood-smoked dishes including a wagyu brisket, and Wondertree, which has Hawaiian, Peruvian and Malay dishes in an exciting, globe-embracing menu. If you’re feeling decadent, Caviar House & Prunier is all lobsters, oysters and champagne.

Retail therapy

As with the food, there’s a thoughtful blend of high street and high end. Curi-o-city is the spot for Beefeater teddy bears, Hogwarts tote bags, model red buses and other shamelessly stereotyped London souvenir nonsense. Harrods, World of Whiskies and the Lego store are perhaps the most pleasingly unexpected finds.

Passing time

Aside from ruthlessly expunging all traces of daylight, perhaps the main flaw in Gatwick’s South Terminal is the relative paucity of seating. That said, there are several high benches with stools designed for charging electronics – you don’t need to fretfully ration your battery here.

Otherwise, the Aerospa Beauty Lounge is the main option beyond grazing and shopping. You can treat yourself to a chair massage (from £20/$40) or a manicure (from £25/$50). For early flights, you can stay overnight at the small but smart Bloc hotel within the terminal, land side.

The verdict

A confession: I used to despise flying from Gatwick. It was tired, hopelessly overcrowded and generally unpleasant. But this makeover has worked wonders. This might well be Europe’s most improved airport, although some natural light wouldn’t go amiss.

Our rating out of five

★★★★

The writer travelled at his own expense.