Gatwick Airport: Will food and drink outlets be open for Monday's flights?

A water outage on Sunday caused chaos at the airport, and affected properties across parts of West Sussex and Surrey.

A London Gatwick spokesperson said, on Monday morning (July 27): “Following an issue yesterday, at the Bough Beech Water Treatment Works which impacted the local area, we are pleased to report that the water supply has fully returned to the airport.

"All toilet facilities are open - as well as food and beverage outlets – and the airport is operating as normal.”

This followed an earlier update, on Sunday evening, which stated that water supply had ‘returned to the vast majority of the London Gatwick campus’.

It was anticipated that food and beverage outlets would be back open for Monday’s first flights.

“Since becoming aware of the issue, we have been working closely with @SESWater and our airport partners to help minimise the impact, and ensure all today's flights departed as scheduled,” a spokesperson for the airport said.

"Additional staff remain on hand across both terminals to support passengers and maintain operations as we return to normal operations.

“We recognise the inconvenience caused by today’s water shortage and thank passengers for their patience and understanding. We'd also like to thank airport staff and our partners, who have gone above and beyond to support passengers and keep disruption to a minimum.”

Earlier on Sunday, passengers and staff at Gatwick were affected by a lack of running water, with reports of toilets that could not be flushed and hand-washing facilities not working.

Bottled water was made available across both terminals, while contingency measures were put in place to support passengers.

SES Water said the disruption was caused by a power outage at Bough Beech Water Treatment Works, which led to complications affecting water supplies.

The company said the treatment works were back up and running by 2pm, but warned that the water needed to be treated before supplies could be fully restored.

Its latest update, just after 10.30pm, read: “SES Water can confirm that water supplies have now been restored following a power failure at our Bough Beech Water Treatment Works.

"We know this incident has caused disruption for customers and our partners today, including Gatwick Airport, and we are sorry.

"We thank everyone for their patience while our teams worked to restore supplies as quickly and safely as possible.”

As the network returns to normal there may be some discolouration or slower flows – people are reassured that this is ‘perfectly normal’.

At 5.55pm, SES Water said supplies were ‘gradually returning’ for impacted customers, including those at Gatwick Airport, but warned it would take time for the network to fully return to normal.

A spokesperson for the water company told Sussex World: “Supplies are gradually returning for impacted customers including Gatwick Airport – it will take time for the network to fully return to normal as this is has been a highly unusual and complex issue.

“We want to reiterate that our teams are working as quickly as they possibly can and we are grateful for everyone’s patience.”

The affected areas include TN8 and parts of the RH1, RH6, RH7, RH8, RH9 and RH10 postcode districts.

Earlier in the day, SES Water said it had been delivering bottled water to the most vulnerable customers on its Priority Services Register who needed it most.

The company apologised to customers affected by the disruption and said it would continue working to restore normal services.