Gatwick Airport: Water outage closes toilets, restaurants, bars for hours at UK’s second-largest airport
For hours, travellers at this major airport were not able to go to the toilet, the bar, or wash their hands.
Passengers travelling through a major airport have been left unable to go to the toilet or wash their hands.
Flights were unaffected; however, a major water outage at London’s Gatwick Airport prompted the closure of restaurants, bars, and toilets.
Both terminals were affected and completely lost their water supply, the airport said on X.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“Our staff are on hand to support passengers and provide assistance where needed, some restaurant partners have opened to provide additional seating,” a spokesperson said.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and are working closely with SES Water to restore the supply as quickly as possible.”
While some hospitality venues were praised online for having seating available for customers, a video shared online showed budget pub Wetherspoons had built a “wall of chairs” around its premises, blocking anyone from entering.
Water firm SES Water said it was experiencing interruptions to water supplies in several parts of south-east England.
“Our teams are on site and working to restore supplies as quickly and safely as possible,” a spokesperson said.
“Customers in some areas may experience low pressure or no water while recovery work is completed.”
Gatwick Airport is the country’s second-largest airport after Heathrow.
While the airport said water bottles were being distributed to passengers during the outage, one passenger, Paul Lee, told the BBC that that was not the case.
“For people who need to go to the toilet, this isn’t good, and still no announcement or official information - and the water they mentioned isn’t being distributed,” he said.
“I’m taking off soon, so that’s fine, but for passengers in a few hours, this will be bad.”
Another passenger described “general grumpiness” in the airport after initially thinking it was a joke when he heard there was no water.
While some toilets initially remained open, passengers were unable to flush or wash their hands.
Passenger Sarah Houchin told the BBC that everyone was “fed up”, but also understood nothing could be done.
“The toilets are either closed or they send you to another toilet and it’s a really long queue, and the toilets are disgusting,” she said.
“As you can imagine, you can smell them.”
Another user on X wrote, “Toilets are backed up and blocked and bins are overflowing... it’s a mess”.
The water has since been restored in “the vast majority of the London Gatwick campus”.
- With AP.
