Every train to and from Gatwick uses the South Terminal. If your flight goes from the North Terminal, you take a free shuttle between the two, which Gatwick says takes two minutes. The thing to do before you travel is look up your own flight: the terminal depends on the airline, and for one airline it depends on the flight number.
Gatwick has exactly two terminals, North and South, about a mile apart with no walking route between them. The railway station sits under the South Terminal, five minutes from both departures and arrivals there. Our Gatwick airport guide covers arriving, the trains and the coaches; this page answers the narrower question of which terminal you need and what the gap between them costs you in time.
It matters most on the way out. Arriving is forgiving, because you have all the time in the world once you are through the border. Departing is not: a passenger who gets off the train at the South Terminal with fifty minutes to spare and then discovers the flight is at the North has a problem.
North or South: the facts that decide it
- Railway station
- South Terminal only. All four train operators use it
- Shuttle
- Free, between the terminals, two minutes according to Gatwick
- Walk between terminals
- Not possible. The shuttle is the only passenger link
- Train frequency
- Gatwick says a train departs on average every four minutes, to more than 120 stations direct
- To central London
- 30 to 45 minutes by Southern, Thameslink or Gatwick Express
- Coaches
- Serve both terminals; check which stop your ticket names
- Extras (2026)
- Fast Track security from £6, Fast Track passport control £15, lounges from £25
How to find out which terminal, before you leave home
Gatwick publishes an airline-by-airline list on its own site, with the two-letter code beside each name, and that is the only list worth trusting. Your booking confirmation may also say it, and the airport's live arrivals and departures boards are filtered by terminal.
One airline needs extra care. TUI operates from both terminals, and Gatwick splits it by flight number: flights numbered TOM leave from the North Terminal and flights numbered BY leave from the South. Gatwick's own advice is to check with the airline if you are unsure, which is a fair warning about how easily this goes wrong.
Do not assume the terminal from a previous trip with the same airline. Gatwick moves airlines between terminals, and the pairing that held last year may not hold now. Check the current list against your flight number in the week you fly.
Photo: Chris Wood · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Who flies from each terminal, in September 2026
The pattern, rather than the full list: the North Terminal is the easyJet terminal, and with it Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, SWISS, Icelandair, Air China, China Eastern, JetBlue, WestJet, Air Transat, Condor, Eurowings, Ethiopian Airlines, Gulf Air, Royal Air Maroc, Air Mauritius and Uzbekistan Airways.
The South Terminal is where British Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling, Norwegian, Norse Atlantic, Jet2, Turkish Airlines, TAP Portugal, Air France, Air India, China Southern, Pegasus, Aegean, Air Europa, Iberia Express, Kenya Airways and Croatia Airlines go. TUI, as above, uses both.
So the common case is simple. A budget flight within Europe on easyJet leaves from the North; a budget flight on Ryanair or Wizz Air leaves from the South. Two airlines that fly the same routes sit at opposite ends of the airport.
The shuttle: two minutes, but budget fifteen
Gatwick describes the inter-terminal service as free and as a two-minute journey, and both statements are true of the ride itself. They are not true of the transfer. You have to find the shuttle station inside your terminal, go up or down to the platform, wait, ride, and then walk into the other terminal and find check-in.
Fifteen minutes is a realistic allowance with hand luggage, twenty with a suitcase and a child. Gatwick does not publish the shuttle's operating hours on the pages we could read, and an inter-terminal system of this kind occasionally goes out of service, so if you have a tight connection between train and flight, build the allowance in rather than hoping.
Arriving by train and needing the North Terminal
This is the ordinary case for a departing passenger, and the order of operations is what matters. Get off the train, follow the signs for the shuttle rather than for check-in, ride across, then check in. Do not join a South Terminal bag-drop queue to ask a question; the staff there cannot check you in for a North Terminal flight.
Work back from the airline's check-in deadline, not from the departure time. If bag drop closes ninety minutes before departure and you need fifteen minutes of shuttle, you need to be off the train one hour and forty-five minutes before the flight, plus a margin for the train itself. Our comparison of Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Southern explains which of them is most likely to be late.
Landing at the North Terminal and needing the train
The reverse trip is easier because nothing is timed, but it surprises people who have been told the station is at the airport. It is at the other terminal. Gatwick's own wording is unambiguous: all rail services operate from the South Terminal, and if you arrive at the North you take the free two-minute shuttle.
Allow twenty minutes from the baggage hall to the platform at the North Terminal, against about ten at the South. If you have a specific train booked on an Advance ticket, that difference is the one that makes you miss it. Our page on Gatwick to central London covers the options once you are on the platform.
Paying for the train, and the trap just south of the airport
Contactless and Oyster both work between Gatwick and London: tap in and out at the barriers. The 60+ Oyster photocard is excluded. If you need an Oyster card, Gatwick sells them at the Your Service Centre desk in the South Terminal check-in zone, which is another reason the South Terminal is the practical hub of the airport.
The trap is directional. Gatwick states that contactless is not valid for travel to stations south of Gatwick Airport or outside London: Crawley, Horsham, Brighton, Reading and Cambridge all need a paper or digital ticket. Tapping in and heading south leaves you with an unresolved journey and a maximum fare. Our guide to Oyster and contactless explains how the caps work, and Gatwick to Brighton covers the southbound trip properly.
Which trains go where from the South Terminal
| Operator | Where it goes | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gatwick Express | London Victoria, non-stop | Twice an hour, 30 minutes. 10% off booking online. Outside the fare caps |
| Southern | Victoria, Clapham Junction, Brighton, Horsham, Eastbourne, Southampton, Portsmouth | £2 child tickets with an adult; Groupsave saves a third for three or more |
| Thameslink | London Bridge, Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon, St Pancras International, then Bedford, Peterborough and Cambridge; south to Brighton | Also direct to Luton Airport Parkway, then four minutes on the DART |
| Great Western Railway | Reading, via Guildford and Redhill | Every half hour, about 90 minutes |
Gatwick's own average journey times: London 30 to 45 minutes, Brighton 30 minutes, Redhill or Reigate 15 minutes, Eastbourne and Guildford an hour, Luton an hour and a half, Cambridge and Bedford two hours. Our Thameslink guide explains why a north-London hotel makes Thameslink the right choice even though Gatwick Express is faster to Victoria.
More Gatwick Express trains from December 2026
The Department for Transport said in June 2026 that the new public operator will double Gatwick Express departures from Victoria, from two an hour to four, from December 2026. Until that takes effect the service remains twice an hour, and a missed Gatwick Express means a thirty-minute wait rather than a fifteen-minute one. From December, the calculation changes.
That matters for the terminal question too. The more frequent the train, the less painful an unplanned shuttle ride becomes, and the less reason there is to pay for a fast non-stop service in the first place.
Connecting flights, and the terminal you land in
If both flights are on one ticket and both are at Gatwick, your airline and the airport handle the transfer, and you follow the connections signage rather than going out to the shuttle as a member of the public. If your two flights are on separate tickets, you are self-connecting: you clear the border, collect your bags, cross terminals if necessary, and check in again from scratch. Treat a North-to-South self-connection as costing an extra half hour on top of everything else.
For an overnight gap, hotels sit at and beside both terminals; our pages on staying overnight at a London airport and staying near Gatwick set out which are on foot and which need a bus. Going on to another London airport is covered in transferring between Heathrow and Gatwick, and anyone who needs help moving between the terminals should book it through special assistance at London airports rather than turning up and asking.
The extras, and whether they are worth it
Gatwick advertises Fast Track security from £6, an exclusive lane at passport control for £15, and lounges from £25. The £6 one is the only one most people should think about: on a busy summer morning at the North Terminal, six pounds to skip the main security queue is the cheapest time you can buy at any London airport. Our guide to airport lounges in London compares the lounge prices across all six airports.
Fast Track at passport control is for arriving passengers, and £15 is only worth it if you are landing at a peak hour on a non-UK passport. If you are choosing between airports for a future trip rather than solving today's, which London airport suits you weighs Gatwick against the others.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gatwick station at the North or South Terminal?
The South Terminal. All four train operators, Gatwick Express, Southern, Thameslink and Great Western Railway, use that one station, and it is about five minutes' walk from both departures and arrivals at the South Terminal. From the North Terminal you reach it by the free inter-terminal shuttle.
How long does the Gatwick terminal shuttle take?
Gatwick says the ride takes two minutes and it is free. Allow fifteen minutes for the whole transfer with hand luggage and twenty with a suitcase, because you have to find the shuttle station, wait, ride and then walk into the other terminal and find check-in.
Can you walk between Gatwick's North and South Terminals?
No. There is no passenger walking route between them; the shuttle is the only link. That is why the terminal your flight uses is worth checking before you leave home rather than when you arrive.
Which terminal does easyJet use at Gatwick?
The North Terminal, along with Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and SWISS among others. British Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air and Vueling use the South Terminal. TUI uses both: flights numbered TOM go from the North and flights numbered BY from the South. Check the airport's current airline list against your own flight number.
Does contactless work on the train from Gatwick?
Yes, between Gatwick and London, by tapping in and out at the barriers; the 60+ Oyster photocard is the exception. It is not valid for stations south of Gatwick or outside London, so journeys to Brighton, Crawley, Horsham, Reading or Cambridge need a ticket bought in advance or at the machines in the South Terminal.
Sources
- London Gatwick - Airlines and terminals (checked September 2026)
- London Gatwick - Travelling by train, fares and journey times (checked September 2026)
- London Gatwick - To and from London (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Tube and rail fares, including Gatwick pay as you go (checked September 2026)
- Department for Transport - statement on Gatwick Express frequencies from December 2026 (June 2026) (checked September 2026)