Passengers at Gatwick Airport on Sunday faced long queues for toilets and were left with nowhere to sit after a major water supply outage forced all bars and restaurants to close. The disruption, which affected both terminals of the UK’s second busiest airport, began in the morning following a power failure at a treatment works near Bough Beech that serves the area.
SES Water, the supplier that also covers parts of Kent, Surrey and south London, said the power outage had been fixed by Sunday afternoon, but described the situation as a “highly unusual and complex issue”. It warned that the network would take time to return fully to normal. By Sunday night, Gatwick confirmed that water had returned to “the vast majority” of the London Gatwick campus.
“Water returns to Gatwick Airport after day of chaos with closed toilets and restaurants.”
Passenger Paul Lee told the BBC he had not heard any announcements about the problem and had not seen bottled water being handed out, despite Gatwick’s apology and pledge to distribute it. “For people who need to go to the toilet, this isn’t good,” he said. “I’m taking off soon, so that’s fine, but for passengers in a few hours, this will be bad.”
Former MP and ex-CEO of UK Music Michael Dugher wrote on social media that the airport should “at least allow people to use the chairs in all the closed restaurants and bars”. He added: “No water is one thing but depriving people of somewhere to sit is another… families are having to sit on the floor.”
Gatwick said no flights were cancelled as a result of the supply issues, and that additional teams had been deployed across both terminals to support passengers. Some restaurant partners opened to provide extra seating, and staff continued handing out bottled water. “Our teams are working hard to reopen toilets and other facilities as quickly and safely as possible,” a spokesperson said.