London Gatwick Airport Passenger Reviews and Gatwick Airport Traveller Reports   No Star Ranking Awarded         Add your London Gatwick Airport Review   London Gatwick Airport Ranking

PAGE 1 2 3 4 5

Airline Reviews

Airline Seat Reviews

Airport Reviews

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  16 July 2011 by N Sutherland   (UK)

Customer Rating :  4/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

South Terminal Arrivals can be a bit of a mess especially at busy times, North Terminal seems better. Baggage arrivals reasonably efficient at both terminals. Departures in South have opened their new Security Screening Area upstairs which I thought was slick and quick and given the passenger numbers they handle was a good as anything at any major airport. Check-In Areas on the airlines that I use are well managed and efficient. Good shopping at both terminals both landside and airside. I think the investment in the airport is beginning to be seen. Airport Hotels are competitively priced with plenty to choose from. LGW certainly offers a better experience than LHR and definitely affects my choice of airline.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  5 July 2011 by S Pinkman   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Arrived off a long-haul flight-North terminal. Luggage took forever to be unloaded from plane to carousel, then huge queues to go through customs due to sniffer dogs being on patrol. Airport is a complete building site and with the closure of the J D Wetherspoons in the south terminal (before security), passengers are left to use overpriced eating and drinking establishments. The only good thing is that the M & S food outlet is open 24/7.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  5 July 2011 by Brian Hill   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Outbound mid-morning, no queues and the new 'electronic' ticket check seems to work fine but security, although in a new area, is still as slow and as chaotic as ever. Inbound at nearly midnight, such a long walk from Gate 4 and still queues!

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  27 June 2011 by Jeff Michel   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Arrived at South Terminal to be greeted by a huge and slow moving queue for immigration, truly ridiculous. Having said that, in spite of waiting forever to get through passport control, another wait for the bags to come through. Had to go to the North Terminal - only one of the new shuttles working, causing yet more delays - and the shuttles were completely taken out of service later. Gatwick Airport proudly announce that they are spending big amounts on the airport - well none of it is apparent!

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  26 June 2011 by B J Hodge   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Transit through this airport is laughable. Transferring from international arrivals to domestic departures is long and tedious, and probably unnecessary with a modicum of consideration of the needs of such passengers, especially when we had already checked in for the domestic flight and had no baggage to collect or drop.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  14 June 2011 by J Tung   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

I used Gatwick 4 times in 2 weeks. The first arrival experience was horrible and I thought it could be due to my delayed flight schedule and the queue in passport control approaching midnight. Second time unfortunately wasn't any better. Arrived early evening from South France and the queue at the passport control in South Terminal was as bad as asylum camp. Very badly organised and passengers got confused over which lines to wait for which passport, and there were not enough immigration officers to deal with the situation. I can understand that the airport is spending money doing renovation and hence they have reduced the desks available to deal with the volume, but there were few empty desks that were unmanned. Unacceptable!

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  9 June 2011 by J Webb   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

A building site with overprices shops and filthy toilets. Although much has been done to reduce the Security queues it only leaves you more time to queue for other facilities airside. Being dumped at 0200 one Sunday morning nearly 3 hours late showed true colours. No staff at all from airline or airport wanted to know.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  6 June 2011 by Simon Smith   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Through here again on return last week. I am beginning to wonder whether there will ever come a time when the airport does not resemble a building site. At some stage the new owners need to get the job done, forget the gimmicks like the bar codes that have appeared around the place with some app for download allowing people to see the work being done. The place really is a tacky dump, if they don't get a shift on people arriving for 2012 Olympics will get a poor first impression of the UK.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  1 June 2011 by J Tydeman   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

North Terminal is nice enough but shops started to close at 8pm which feels early for an airport which stays open all night. This led to interminable queues in the only remaining WH Smiths (the other was one of the shops which closed). On return, hardly any immigration queues which was really good and didn't have to wait long for our bus back to the long stay car park.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  1 June 2011 by E Morris   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

The airport is a mess and seems to be forever a work in progress . The views of the ugly and tatty terminal buildings on arrival shows a complete lack of any real planning. What might have passed as acceptable in the 1970's now looks third world. Went to use the Gents toilets in he departure lounge and there were so few urinals that a queue had formed! The soap dispenser was empty. The emphasis appears to be on retail and this has little to do with airport efficiency. On return from Copenhagen the airport arrival route is very long leading to a part built Border Control area. The checks are fast enough but could be done away with for European travel surely? Anyone arriving in the UK for the first time should be prepared for a shock if they choose to go by train. Both the station and many of the trains are grim and the prices very high. The services are also infrequent outside peak hours.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  31 May 2011 by Johnny Tung   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Arrived at Gatwick very late at night after a bank holiday break and flight delay. My flight was parked in the far end of North terminal and then we were shuttled to the south terminal. Normally I quite like the shuttle transport since it saves time walking and passengers are sent right outside the immigration section. It was a totally different story this time. Actually since they carried out renovation, the immigration service has been poor. Last time when I came back the immigration officer cared more about the comfort of her chair and was chatting to her colleague rather than doing her job checking my passport. The immigration hall was packed with passenger at 11pm at night. I have never seen such a long queue and chaos in a civilised country. Because of the renovation work, they removed Iris check so one option of faster track was removed. No special line for business class passengers either. There were empty desks that weren't being used and the queue even extended outside the door. Luckily for passengers with EU passports the wait is only 10-15 minutes. I did feel sympathetic for passengers not holding EU passports since the process was very slow the queue was just too long. It is a shame for the airport owners who acquired this airport not long time ago and have since then given themselves good dividend. It is also a shame for the Home Office not to resolve this issue quick enough. After all it's the first impression that UK makes to the visitors!

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  9 May 2011 by Simon Smith   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Came through LGW South terminal after connecting from LHR. The airport seems to be as it has been for years - a building site. The usual long snaking queues around the terminal and staff with long faces. The whole place really does have a low cost feel to it.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  27 April 2011 by R Hopkins   (UK)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

We experienced a pleasant departure and arrival in mid April. All staff encountered were pleasant and polite, from car-park bus drivers to passport control and nothing like the hold- ups experienced at Stansted or Luton.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  22 April 2011 by J Stamos   (USA)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Dreadful and tired old airport. Passport control on arrival was mayhem, there was a mass of people waiting blocking up the whole area with no queues, and I've witnessed this on various occasions. Only the Gatwick Express is a decent train of a similar standard to other European countries, but the other local trains from Gatwick are old, rickety and distinctly over- priced.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  4 April 2011 by Jeff Michel   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Security surprisingly quick and the Departure Lounge is quite spacious (north terminal). If LGW wonder why they are rated so low in terms of passenger comfort and satisfaction they should seriously look at their constant announcements! There cannot be more than 15-30 seconds free of announcements at any one time and it makes for a very noisy and quite stressful atmosphere. Flew into LGW from ZRH which seemed to be a haven of tranquillity compared to the LGW stress.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  16 March 2011 by Simon Harris   (UK)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Friday afternoon departure and return on a Sunday night to and from the North Terminal. The building work in the terminal is causing minimal disruption. Security was a breeze and in the departure lounge in ten minutes from being dropped off at the terminal. The return was equally uneventful and efficient along the walk from the gate at the airbridge seemed to go on and on and on. That being said, I was out and in the car in less than half an hour of landing.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  9 March 2011 by M Graham   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

An early morning departure from the south terminal, it was very crowded. The security staff coped well and were very helpful to some passengers who had too much in their liquids bag. Arriving back in the evening was a different story. The immigration staff were incredibly rude, one was just plain nasty, not to me but to a young lady flying on her own who was nervous. If you cross the line before the officer calls you , you get snapped at, if you hesitate, it's the same .Who trains these people and who monitors their behaviour?

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  11 February 2011 by John Oram   (UK)

Customer Rating :  4/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

We used LGW on on BA European. It was quiet on our departure. There is substantial North Terminal refurbishment underway focused it seems on the car parks. I hope it is worth their while. Gatwick has probably suffered more then most over the years from the vagaries of the airline industry as Laker, Dan-Air and Air Europe all disappeared and BA have had an increasingly fluid approach to their routes and operations there. Security was swift and painless and I think overall that the new owners are making an effort to improve the airport. Baggage handling on our return was quick but they still could advertise the carousel earlier. After all, they must now which it is going to be.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  17 January 2011 by Guy Senior   (UK)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

I have not used it for over a year. In early January 2011 the place is more open and airier. BA check in took 2 minutes and for once the fast track security was just that, taking all of 5 minutes. The BA lounge is being refurbished, which is a bit of a shame as the old lounge was lovely. Coming back, I was out of the airport within 40 minutes.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  27 November 2010 by Simon Godfrey   (UK)

Customer Rating :  4/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Early morning departure from North Terminal to Paphos and evening return a fortnight later. Checked in hold luggage the night before - worth doing (despite having to pay £2-50 for the short term car park to do so) as the airport was empty and tranquil. Next morning through security quickly, and the only slight grumble was that the boarding gate indication wasn't displayed until well after the designated time. On return had to wait maybe ten minutes for the luggage carousel to be indicated, otherwise painless. Not the airport's fault, but the traffic from the airport to the M25 was horrid!

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  23 November 2010 by M Graham   (UK)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

A midday departure to Tallin from the South terminal. No queue at check in, security was quick and easy and the security staff were very friendly. A pleasant experience all round.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  29 October 2010 by David Reynolds   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

North Terminal - Returning yesterday we had booked a taxi pickup from the new Arrivals/Departure roadside zone-- what a big mistake! Working out how to get there from Arrivals was a challenge in itsself -up the lift to 1st floor, then down another lift to the ground floor taxi pickup point - the signing was non existant and it was sheer luck we got through. Then waiting for the taxi we got soaked as the whole area is exposed to the drenching weather!

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  25 October 2010 by F Odds   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

The development of Gatwick seems to involve endless additions of long, often claustrophic corridors leading from one place to another. This now even includes the rebuilt first-floor (South Terminal) toilets, which you need to plan for in advance rather than depend on an emergency rush! The airside facilities are not at all bad, but the procedures in place for 'security' include incoming passengers having to carry bar-coded pieces of paper with them till they reach the exit, and photography of people using domestic flights. Why do we have to be so persistently criminalized for travelling by air?

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  18 October 2010 by David Merritt   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Nothing wrong with the new ownership and the money that is being spent on it, but at 0500 onwards in the North Terminal, Easyjets continuing announcements about what will happen if you are not at the gate in the next three minutes is enough to drive you to despair. How come no one else has to overuse the system so much - really ruins the experience.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  13 October 2010 by M Bubb   (Guernsey)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Arrived LGW North Terminal lunchtime. Customs was a breeze. Baggage on carousel as we had cleared Customs. Had an evening flight to catch from South Terminal but check in for flight only open 2.5 hours prior to departure. Went up to Gatwick Village expecting shops, restaurants etc as there used to be in the good old days. Only Cafe Nero and Boots! Had to sit on very hard seats outside Cafe Nero for nearly four hours! Why can't Gatwick authorities realise not everyone can go through airside.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  25 September 2010 by P Graves   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Late arrival from Spain - no one to meet plane at gate so had to wait 10 minutes for airbridge to be deployed. 10 minute trek through airport to wait at immigration. Fairly quick through passport control and brought to grinding halt due to build up of people waiting for baggage belts to be announced. After 20 minutes we are asked to move to baggage hall due to overcrowding and another 20 minutes before any baggage arrives. All in all about 1 hour 20 from landing to leaving the airport.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  19 July 2010 by Simon Smith   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

South terminal to IOM and back. Longish queues at security caused partly by insufficient staff to remove empty containers from the xray belt thus holding everything up. Decent range of retail outlets although generally overpriced. Long queue stretching out of the ladies toilets! Seating at a premium due to lots of people laid out asleep. Straightforward arrival on return as you would expect for domestic arrival. Overall a pretty average experience, this really is a bucket and spade type airport and the new owners have a lot of work to do.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  19 July 2010 by Roger Smith   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

I have been using Gatwick Airport since 1963. During that time I have seen it change from a pleasant and small airport used primarily by charter airlines into the nightmare that it is today. During the 1980's I would regularly leave a Scottish airport on time only to spend an hour or so circling over Gatwick due to congestion on the one runway. Departing from the airport today it is obvious that enormous sums of money have been invested into the shopping mall that you are faced with following the security bottle-neck. On arrival however it is a very different matter, an assault course is the first welcome to the incoming passenger who is then faced with passport controls that operate in a building site that seems to have remained in the same state for about 10-years, floors, walls and ceilings all in a state of mess as is the baggage collection area that is designed to create a bottle-neck of passengers blocking the flow from many flights who are trying to find where their baggage will be dumped. A special innovation nowadays is the need for passengers to be in possession of either a euro or one-pound coin for use of a baggage trolley, specially helpful for anyone arriving from outside the EC.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  8 July 2010 by M Frari   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

A huge hall is only for Easyjet check-in, and all passengers for all EZY flights are on a single vast queue. This is check-in hell. There are no take-away food shops to buy something to take onto a flight, either before security or after, only expensive restaurants - and who has the time to sit down for a meal when rushing to a plane, because it took over an hour to clear security? Staff are bullish and rude, but they are obviously working under extreme stress. Traveling through Gatwick is the perfect way to ruin your holiday even before its begun.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  2 May 2010 by Robert Bushby   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

This is a review of South Terminal and even allowing for the ash problem it was quiet for late April especially outbound. Security staff having a shouted personal conversation at a nearby screening station and to my inexpert eye not concentrating on the job in hand. In complete contrast the operative who fed my hand baggage through the x-ray machine I used was a model of hard work and politeness. An inbound blot is the rebuilding of the passport control area, the actual arrival process despite plenty of passengers was fine and fast so thumbs up to the Border Control folks but the environment (for them as well as us) is an utter mess. Overall South Terminal has been tidied up somewhat but please get rid of the car raffles and sundry promotional activities so that people can move around unhindered. So - getting better but quite a way to go yet especially if traffic picks up.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  19 February 2010 by Gary Farrelly   (France)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Arrived into the South Terminal with BA and departed from North Terminal with Aer Lingus. By far the most depressing airport terminals I have ever visited. The long boarding piers at the airport could be a plane watchers dream and a free way to keep kiddies transfixed/ quiet - but LGW decides to make minimum use of windows denying passengers of any views of the apron and parked airliners and virtually no natural light. Catering and shopping everywhere but no distraction available other than retail. LGW looks like a dated out of town shopping centre. Long walks with nothing interesting to see (except faded carpet and out of service slot machines) make for a confusing and demoralising terminal layout. Staff in all areas of the airport roughly spoken and profoundly unhelpful. And what is with the weird, complicated closed gate boarding system - the mind boggles. I hate LGW and will avoid using that airport at all costs.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  19 February 2010 by C O'Hanlon   (UK)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Flew out from the North Terminal on a Sunday morning. Car meet and greet worked perfectly and queues at Check-in were small. There were helpers on hand at security to guide you to the shortest queue, ensure that we had the correct items out ready for inspection and advising that we needed to remove our shoes, which worked very well and we were through security in under five minutes. Good range of shops with some reasonable prices, clean toilets, good facilities for changing infants and plenty of places to sit. On the way to the gate we had to go through another security checkpoint (as we were flying to the US) with full bag searches and body pat downs, but this was handled efficiently. On the way back, a 10 minute queue at passport control and our bags were coming off the carousel as we got to the baggage claim. We were in the car an hour after landing, which for a larger airport I thought was pretty good.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  9 February 2010 by Johnny Tung   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

I use Gatwick at least twice a month and my experience in January can only be described as disaster. Arrived from Prague on a late night easyjet flight landed at around 2250 at the South Terminal, the same day when the UK security level was raised to severe. When we disembarked the plane, we realized that the door between the jetty and the terminal was closed and there was no one inside the airport. We then managed to ask the flight attendant to help and managed the first door. Then we realized there was another second door locked. Again no sign of any staff at Gatwick. The flight attendant had to open the door again and here we are at the departure lounge rather than the arrivals. Then all the passengers wander around the almost empty airport without being approached or questioned. Eventually I managed to get the attention from a security personnel and he directed all the passengers though the arrival hall. No explanation whatsoever. They blamed easyjet of course. I have written to Gatwick airport but no response at all. It is ridiculous that they operate the airport, link the jetty to the airplane and then when something went wrong they said it wasn't their responsibility. It's a shame because departure from this airport is always smooth.

LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT customer review :  8 February 2010 by D Taylor   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Outbound no issues except for delays at check in, which is more an airline problem. Security was quick and efficient although this may have more to do with the time of my flight which was outside of peak hours. Inbound - it took almost 2 hours from leaving the aircraft to make it through to arrivals, passport control painfully slow with massive queues, even after waiting for what felt like eternity the luggage was still not on the belt so even more delays.