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As summer temperatures prompt heat alerts across the United Kingdom, 
London Gatwick Airport (LGW) was left without virtually any running water for Sunday travelers. The failure of the Bough Beech Water Treatment Works caused the closure of nearly every toilet past the security checkpoints, and no drinking water was available except in bottled form, according to the BBC.
The water supply outage affected the wider Sussex and Kent area, according to The Guardian, but inside the airport the congestion compounded rapidly. The lack of service from lounges and restaurants also created a seating shortage, with many flyers forced to spend hours sitting on the terminal floors.
London Gatwick’s Parched Sunday
On July 26, the near-complete shutdown of all running water made drinking water unavailable and meant very long lines for restroom access as well as a total absence of sinks for customers to wash their hands. Sky News recounted testimony from a flyer headed to Florida, Nick Hollings. He said: “I had to beg to be able to go to the loo. They weren’t letting anybody in. It’s chaos.”
Sky News also reported that toilets began smelling “quite a bit like sewage” in the words of Vanessa Brown-Ofoedu, a passenger flying to Mallorca, Spain. She also stated that an airport employee had been posted outside the toilets to “make sure no one’s going in.”
Airport Authorities reported that the water supply had been returned to the vast majority of the campus around 10:00 PM on Sunday night. Gatwick released this statement late on Sunday evening, according to My London:
“Most toilet facilities are now open and we expect all toilets – as well as food and beverage outlets – to be open for tomorrow’s first flights. Since becoming aware of the issue, we have been working closely with SES Water and our airport partners to help minimise the impact, and ensure all today’s flights departed as scheduled.”
Catch what other flight trackers miss
Emergency squawks, holds, NOTAMs — live signals, no signup.
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Catch what other flight trackers miss
Emergency squawks, holds, NOTAMs — live signals, no signup.
Open tracker
No Water, No Service, And No Seats Available
Despite the chaotic situation landside, airfield operations carried on unhindered. Fortunately, no flights were delayed or canceled as a direct result of the water crisis. This at least allowed for travelers to board in a timely manner to alleviate congestion at crippled airport facilities. The lack of restrooms was a major issue, but so too was the shortage of drinking water.
The lack of water forced restaurants and bars to cancel service, but only a handful opened their seating areas to travelers. Airport authorities claimed that bottled water was being distributed but, as The Standard reported, passengers stated that they had not seen anyone handing it out. With all the restaurants shuttered, food service at Gatwick was also limited to off-the-shelf items like sandwiches.
Some carriers, such as easyJet, issued updated recommendations to avoid arriving more than two hours early. The low-cost carrier’s bag drops reduced the three-hour lead time in accordance, only accepting luggage two hours in advance of departure. The water shortage also forced lounges to close, with travelers who had booked access being denied entry.
No Flow From Bough Beech Water Treatment Works
The root cause of Gatwick’s water crisis was a localized electrical grid failure that knocked out the main power supply to the Bough Beech treatment site. The high-pressure water flow through the plant’s filtration system was disrupted in what the company described, per the BBC, as “a highly unusual and complex issue.” The situation garnered the attention of former MP and ex-CEO of UK Music Michael Dugher.
Airport patrons reported that Nando’s, Wetherspoon, and all other restaurants appeared to be closed, with the shops being open despite the airport stating that seating was available in some of the dining venues. Dugher, recently appointed as the first government ‘Music Champion,’ wrote on social media that the airport should “at least allow people to use the chairs in all the closed restaurants and bars.”
The last similar systemic failure at Gatwick was the 2022 water main collapse, which caused a very similar crisis for landside facilities during the summer rush. Before that incident, there was a flood and power outage amidst the holiday travel surge of 2013. Unlike the 2013 incident, the air traffic control and scheduling systems were unaffected in 2022 and this past Sunday, which delivered the silver lining of allowing aircraft to cycle on time.
