RAF Gatwick

Gatwick Airport
IATA: LGW ICAO: EGKK WMO: 03776
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Gatwick Airport Limited
Serves	London, United Kingdom
Location	Crawley, West Sussex
Hub for	British Airways
Elevation AMSL	203 ft / 62 m
Coordinates	51°08′53″N 000°11′25″W / 51.14806°N 0.19028°W / 51.14806; -0.19028Coordinates: 51°08′53″N 000°11′25″W / 51.14806°N 0.19028°W / 51.14806; -0.19028
Website	www.gatwickairport.com
Map
LGW Location in West Sussex, England
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 08L/26R 2,565 8,415 Asphalt 08R/26L 3,316 10,879 Asphalt
Statistics (2016)
Passengers 43,119,628 Passenger change 15–16 7.1% Aircraft Movements 280,666 Movements change 15–16 4.8% Gates 115 (in terminal)
Sources: UK AIP at NATS Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority

Passengers	43,119,628
Passenger change 15–16	7.1%
Aircraft Movements	280,666
Movements change 15–16	4.8%
Gates	115 (in terminal)

Gatwick Airport (also known as London Gatwick) (IATA: LGW, ICAO: EGKK) is a major international airport in south-east England, 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London and 2.7 nautical miles (5.0 km; 3.1 mi) north of Crawley. It is the second-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom, after London Heathrow. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe. Until 2016, it was the busiest single-use runway airport in the world before being overtaken by Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s, and has been in use for commercial flights since 1933. The airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal, which cover areas of 98,000 m² (1,050,000 sq ft) and 160,000 m² (1,700,000 sq ft) respectively. It operates as a single-runway airport, using a main runway with a length of 3,316 m (10,879 ft). A secondary runway is available but, due to its proximity to the main runway, can only be used if that is out of use. In 2016, 43.1 million passengers passed through the airport, a 7.1% increase compared with 2015.

The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s. The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, and the first terminal, "The Beehive", was built in 1935. Scheduled air services from the new terminal began the following year. Major development work at the airport took place during the 1950s. The airport buildings were designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall between 1955 and 1988.