Gatwick Airport is London's second largest airport and the second busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. It is the world's 22nd busiest airport in terms of passengers per year (7th in terms of international passengers). It is also often quoted as the world's busiest single runway airport, although strictly speaking it now has a second 'stand-by' runway, which can be used only when the main runway is out of use.

Gatwick is located in Crawley, West Sussex (originally Charlwood, Surrey) 5 km (3 miles) north of the town centre, 46 km (28 miles) south of London and 40 km (25 miles) north of Brighton.

Gatwick is owned and operated by BAA, which also owns and operates six other UK airports, including Heathrow, and is itself owned by an international consortium led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.

With about 200 destinations the airport handled over 34 million passengers with 263,363 aircraft movements in 2006. It was confirmed that during 2007 Gatwick passed the 35 million mark for the first time in its history.

In 2008 Gatwick celebrates 50 years of operations - Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the airport on 9 June 1958.

Charter airlines generally do not operate from Heathrow and therefore use Gatwick as their main base for London and the South East.

For the past 30 years many flights to and from the USA have also used Gatwick because of the restrictions on access to Heathrow that were enshrined in the 1977 Bermuda II bilateral air services agreement between the UK and the US.

The airport is a major operational base for British Airways, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic. The airport is also a major base for a number of charter airlines including First Choice Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomsonfly.

London Gatwick has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P528) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.

On 17 September 2008, BAA announced that they are selling Gatwick Airport, following a report by the Competition Commission into BAA's market dominance, especially in London and the South East. The process of selling Gatwick will begin immediately; the airport has been valued at £1.8 billion by regulators. Potential bidders for Gatwick include Australia's Macquarie Group, German transport company Fraport and Manchester Airports Group, the largest UK-owned airport group.

History

The name "Gatwick" dates back to 1241, and was the name of a manor on the site of today's airport until the 19th century. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words gāt, 'goat', and wīc, 'dairy farm', i.e. 'goat farm'.