New departures level at Gatwick - part of £1 billion investment

After just one year of construction work on this £36 million project, the new level will showcase the world’s largest self-service bag drop, aimed to eliminate queues, while passengers throughout the new level will benefit from an investment in the latest airport technology.

Artists impression of new check-in hall The World’s largest self-service bag drop zone will start a phased opening from October 20, with a one-month trial coming to an end on November 18. This follows successful trials of a self-service bag drop in the South Terminal which proved check-in process can be completed in less than two minutes by allowing passengers to take charge of their own journey through the airport. “The new self-service bag drop enables passengers who have checked in on-line to take their bags straight to a machine upon arrival at the airport, where they can print their luggage tag, apply it to their bag and load it straight onto Gatwick’s state-of-the-art baggage sorting system,” according to Gatwick.

View of world's largest self-service bag drop zone Ultimately, Gatwick will have 60 of these check-in points, with 48 expected to be self-service bag drop points. A total of 28 of these will be operational this month The check-in hall will open in two phases between October 2015 and April 2016, increasing peak check-in capacity from 3,000 to 4,350 passengers per hour.

Gatwick CEO,  said: “Gatwick has added eight million passengers since we came into private ownership in 2009, and we are about to reach the 40 million mark. This is a decade ahead of industry predictions and we will continue to grow. While we wait for a decision on building a new runway, we are investing billions to ensure we can grow from our existing infrastructure, but this will only take us so far.”

Entrance from shuttle to new check-in hall Other aspects of the North Terminal development programme will include £30 million to create a world-leading new security area in the North Terminal, £21 million invested to create a world-class new departure lounge in North Terminal, £10 million on refurbishing the North Terminal’s arrival area, £10 million to upgrade the North Terminal border zone, £250 million to maintain and replace facilities including lifts, escalators and the technology infrastructure, £80 million to reconfigure the Pier 5 facility and £185m to construct a state-of-the-art new Pier 1.