Gatwick Airport departures today

The live board below shows today’s Gatwick departures: scheduled time, estimated time, airline, destination, terminal and current status for every flight leaving London Gatwick today, updated continuously until each aircraft is airborne. Gatwick is the second-busiest airport in Britain and the busiest single-runway airport in the world, with 42.8 million passengers in 2025 and up to 57 aircraft movements an hour, so search the board by flight number or destination. Whether you are flying today, dropping someone off or checking whether a delay is real, today’s Gatwick flight departures are on this one page.

North Terminal or South Terminal?

Gatwick has two terminals about a kilometre apart, and the terminal on this board and on your boarding pass is the one that counts. According to Gatwick’s own terminal list, easyJet, the airport’s largest airline, and Emirates depart from the North Terminal; British Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling, Norse Atlantic and Jet2 depart from the South. TUI is split by flight number: TOM flights use the North Terminal and BY flights the South. Airlines move between the two from time to time, so check the board on the day. Between the terminals runs a free driverless shuttle train that takes about 2 minutes, so a wrong turn costs a few minutes rather than the flight.

How early to arrive: Gatwick’s own advice is 2 hours before a short-haul departure and 3 hours before long-haul, and at this airport that advice is worth taking literally. The busiest moment at security is the first wave between 05:00 and 08:00, when easyJet, TUI and BA all push out their based aircraft at once and both terminals fill from the doors back. Bag drop for most airlines closes 40 to 60 minutes before departure, and gates at the far end of the piers are a 10 to 15 minute walk from security.

Reading the board: from Scheduled to Departed

The status column walks through a departure in order. Scheduled means the timetable still stands; Delayed means the estimated column is now the truth. Go to Gate and Boarding mean exactly what they say, Final Call means the gate is about to shut, Gate Closed means it has, and Departed means the aircraft has left. Gatwick publishes many gates only 30 to 45 minutes before departure, so an empty gate field early in the day is normal.

Gatwick’s one runway is the fact behind most delays here. Every landing and every take-off uses the same strip of tarmac, roughly one movement a minute at peak, so a thunderstorm, a strong crosswind or a single blocked aircraft ripples through the whole schedule with nowhere to absorb it. The evening return wave from the Mediterranean is when the queue is longest: a departure timed at 21:00 in July regularly pushes back 30 to 45 minutes late while inbound aircraft are worked in between the take-offs. The fix is on its way: the Northern Runway Project, which brings Gatwick’s standby runway into routine use for departures, received government consent on 21 September 2025 and cleared its last legal challenge in the Court of Appeal on 4 August 2026; the airport expects the second runway to be in routine use around 2030.

Once a flight shows Departed, enter its flight number in the live flight radar on our homepage and you will see the aircraft as a moving symbol, with route, altitude and speed all the way to its destination. On the dedicated Gatwick flight radar you can watch departures roll down the runway and climb out over Sussex. Meeting someone flying in instead? The Gatwick arrivals board does the same job in the other direction.

Getting to Gatwick: trains to the South Terminal, and the £10 drop-off

Gatwick is the easiest London airport to reach by rail. The station sits inside the South Terminal: the Gatwick Express runs non-stop to London Victoria in about 30 minutes, Thameslink trains serve London Bridge, Blackfriars, St Pancras and on to Luton and Bedford, and Southern trains connect the south coast, with Brighton about 30 minutes away. For the North Terminal, take the free shuttle from the station level. National Express and other coaches serve both terminals from the coach stations.

By car, know this before you reach the forecourt: since 6 January 2026 stopping outside either terminal costs £10 for up to 10 minutes, with no free period, then £1 for each extra minute up to 20 minutes, with a maximum charge of £30 and a maximum stay of 30 minutes. The charge is read by number-plate cameras and payable online by midnight the following day, and forgetting to pay turns £10 into a penalty. The free alternative is the Long Stay car park of your terminal, where drop-off is free and a shuttle bus runs to the building every few minutes: allow an extra 15 to 20 minutes for it. Blue Badge holders are exempt from the forecourt charge if the vehicle is registered in advance.

Frequently asked questions

How early should I be at Gatwick?

2 hours before a short-haul flight and 3 hours before long-haul. Add 30 minutes if you are flying in the first wave between 05:00 and 08:00 in the summer holidays, when security at both terminals is at its busiest.

Which terminal does easyJet fly from at Gatwick?

The North Terminal, according to Gatwick’s own terminal list; read the terminal on this board and on your boarding pass all the same. Our easyJet flight tracker explains how easyJet flight numbers and callsigns work.

Why are Gatwick evening departures so often late?

Because the airport has one runway shared by arrivals and departures, and the evening return wave from holiday destinations fills it. A late inbound aircraft also means a late outbound one, since the same aircraft operates both.

Can I watch my flight after it has departed?

Yes: put the flight number into the radar on our homepage and follow it to its destination, or watch it climb out on the Gatwick flight radar page.