British Airways Gatwick Terminal Move Pushed Back

British Airways operations out of London Gatwick have been based in the airport’s North Terminal for over 28 years but, thanks to the seemingly never-ending easyJet expansion, that era is coming to an end.

As things stand, British Airways operates all of its flight out of the North Terminal while easyJet (now the airports biggest airline) has its flights split across both North and South terminals. With the two terminals standing almost a mile apart and with passengers, apparently, continually turning up at the wrong terminals (how hard is it to check which terminal you’re meant to use?!) something had to give.

EasyJet flexed its muscles and, as it carries 2.5x as many passengers out of Gatwick as British Airways, got its wish to see all its flights consolidated into one terminal – Gatwick North.

Discussions for the move started back in 2014 and all announcements surrounding it have, up until now, indicated that the terminal swap would occur in Autumn 2016. Back in early 2015 when the news of the discussions first broke, Gatwick’s chief executive, Stewart Wingate, told the Independent:

The most important thing is that you’ve got to pick an intelligent date. The target date is November 2016.

At the time I thought November was a brave choice.

Although it’s the quietest month of the year for UK aviation, if anything went badly wrong with the terminal move (remember how badly British Airways’ move to Terminal 5 went?), the issues could easily run into December (winter vacation season) and suddenly you have an even bigger problem than you started with.

Well, either they’ve had some big issues come to light already or someone somewhere shares my concerns because the move is no longer happening in November 2016.

British Airways at London Gatwick – courtesy David Fiske via Flickr

British Airways has announced that it will move all flights at London Gatwick to the South Terminal on 25 January 2017.

At the time of writing I haven’t been able to find a comment from easyJet (or Virgin Atlantic for that matter) but British Airways seems very sure of the new date.

If you’re planning to travel from Gatwick in January 2017 (I realise this is almost a year away but some people plan quite far ahead) my suggestion would be to avoid traveling on dates immediately before and after 25 January if you can.

I’m sure we’ll hear all sorts of soothing noises from Gatwick, easyJet and British Airways reassuring everyone that all will be working as normal….but why travel during such a major upheaval if you don’t have to?

British Airways will be opening a brand new upgraded check-in area on the South Terminal concourse and it has confirmed that it will be opening a new lounge in the South Terminal as well.

The exact wording from British Airways, regarding the lounge is:

A new British Airways lounge will open in the South Terminal providing a world-class experience for customers in a much larger, brighter environment.

Note British Airways’ use of the singular “lounge” – no separate First Class lounge for Gatwick.

It will be interesting to see what provisions British Airways makes for First Class passengers and OneWorld Emeralds in their new Gatwick home. The offering in Gatwick North Terminal wasn’t exactly fantastic but at least the fact that there was a separate lounge gave Emeralds half a chance of getting a seat during busy times.

Bottom Line

The South Terminal at Gatwick should be more convenient for passengers arriving by train – no more monorail connections from the station to the North Terminal – and even though we’re only getting a single British Airways lounge, it has to be better than what was on offer before. If they come up with something like the British Airways Galleries Club lounge at Heathrow T5 (which isn’t too bad) with enhanced food offerings for Emeralds and First Class flyers we won’t be missing out on much.

The most important thing to watch, however, is how the terminal move goes on 25 January 2017. Hopefully, for all concerned, it will go amazingly well and no one will be inconvenienced in the slightest…..but the realist in me doesn’t, for one moment, believe that’s how things will go 🙂

Featured image: Chris Sampson via Flickr