Timeline of Gatwick Airport


was in Surrey until 1974, when it became part of West Sussex as a result of a county boundary change. The original, pre-World War II airport was built on the site of a manor in the parish of Charlwood. The land was first used as an aerodrome in the 1920s, and in 1933 commercial flights there were approved by the Air Ministry.

Origins

DH.86 at the Beehive terminal building in 1936
helicopter at its Gatwick base in 1955.
at Gatwick in 2013
These and other planned improvements are designed to enable the airport to handle 53 million passengers by 2023.