HORLEY — Passengers at Gatwick Airport were left without water after a main burst in a nearby field, with the disruption affecting both terminals before supply began to recover.
SES Water said it had located the burst main in Horley and started work to restore supply. The company said water pressure was beginning to return to normal, although the airport said the issue was still being investigated as the day went on.
Flights were not affected by the problem, the airport said. That meant services continued to depart as scheduled even while passengers in parts of the airport dealt with closed toilets and limited facilities.
The outage came after a similar incident in July, when a separate supply failure left travellers facing long queues for toilets and forced restaurants and bars to shut for several hours.
Passengers describe frustration as toilets close and handwashing is limited
Travellers said the loss of water made a routine wait in the terminals more awkward, particularly because they could not use toilets normally or wash their hands. One passenger due to fly to Amsterdam from the North Terminal said there was no water at all and that staff had not given passengers much information about what was happening.
Naduni Abeywickrama, who was travelling from London to Aberdeen, said the situation was “extremely frustrating”. She said no one appeared to be causing a scene, but added that this was the second time she had experienced a similar problem at the airport.
The comments reflected the practical impact on people moving through the airport rather than any wider disruption to air travel. For those on short journeys, the main inconvenience was the lack of basic washroom access while waiting to board.
In the North Terminal, food outlets remained open but were serving passengers for seating only, reflecting the restricted conditions while the water issue was addressed.
Airport says flights stayed on schedule while services began to return
A Gatwick Airport spokesperson said toilets had remained available throughout and that food and drink outlets were reopening, with hot food being served again. The airport said it had worked closely with partners to limit the effect of the outage as soon as it became aware of the problem.
The airport also said all of that day’s flights continued to depart as scheduled. That was the most significant operational detail for passengers, because it meant the water supply problem did not spread into wider delays or cancellations.
SES Water’s head of networks, Anthony Rochester, said the company had restored water supplies to Gatwick Airport and surrounding areas by re-routing its network. He said the firm was continuing to work with the airport because water was not yet flowing through all of the buildings.
The airport said the majority of toilets in the South Terminal were unaffected, while the North Terminal was more directly hit. It said it would keep providing updates as more information became available.
Second water problem this year raises fresh concerns for busy summer travellers
The latest outage will remind passengers of the wider impact that utility failures can have on a major transport hub, even when flights themselves are not disrupted. At a large airport, water supply affects toilets, cleaning, catering and basic passenger comfort all at once.
In July, both terminals at Gatwick lost running water for several hours after a power failure at a treatment works in the area. That earlier disruption caused queues for toilets and led to restaurants and bars closing, making the new incident particularly frustrating for regular users of the airport.
This time, the airport and SES Water both moved quickly to report progress on the repair and restoration effort. The key immediate issue for passengers was not flight safety or scheduling, but whether the terminals could operate normally while water pressure recovered.
For many passengers, that meant an uncomfortable wait rather than a travel cancellation, but it still highlighted how dependent airport services are on a working local water network.
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