London Gatwick Airport

London Gatwick Airport (LGW) is the world's busiest single-runway airport, a distinction it has held for most of the past three decades. It handled 43.2M passengers in 2024 across just one active runway (08R/26L at 10,879 ft), with peak movement rates sustained at 55 per hour through a combination of rapid-exit taxiways, tight wake-separation management, and what NATS describes as the most sophisticated single-runway arrival/departure interleaving system in the world. Located in Crawley, West Sussex, 45 km (28 mi) south of central London at 202 ft (62 m) elevation, LGW is the UK's second-busiest airport after LHR. The two-terminal layout (North and South Terminals, linked by an inter-terminal shuttle) segregates EasyJet — which treats LGW as its largest global base with roughly 70 aircraft stationed — and British Airways' substantial short-haul and leisure-long-haul operation. The airport is also a major TUI, Jet2, Wizz Air, Norse Atlantic, and Virgin Atlantic base, supporting long-haul services to New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Jamaica, Barbados, Cape Town, Bangkok, and the Maldives. Gatwick's second runway (08L/26R) is currently used only as a taxiway because of its proximity to the main runway; a GBP 2.2 billion project to widen it by 12 metres and bring it into regular dual use was granted government approval in principle in 2025. LGW's history as an overflow capacity release for London goes back to 1958, when BAA designated it as the capital's second airport. Its importance has outgrown that classification: in route-count terms it matches or exceeds several full two-runway continental hubs, reflecting the operational intensity that the current slot regime extracts from a single strip of pavement.