Gatwick Airport Loses Water Supply for Hours After Treatment Plant Power Outage

Water Cut Off, Flights Kept Moving

Gatwick Airport lost its running water supply Sunday morning after a power outage hit the Bough Beech Water Treatment Works, the facility run by SES Water that serves the airport and surrounding Sussex and Kent areas, according to the BBC.

Both terminals were affected. Toilets stopped working. Bars, cafes and restaurants shut down because staff couldn't wash their hands or serve drinks. Taps either ran dry or dropped to low pressure, according to the Guardian.

No flights were cancelled. Gatwick confirmed that all of Sunday's scheduled departures went out on time, according to ITV News London. Everything on the ground, though, was a mess for hours.

Passengers Stuck With Nowhere to Sit, Nowhere to Go

Passenger accounts paint a picture of a long, disorganized afternoon. Roger Wood, traveling from Tunbridge Wells to catch a flight to New York, told the Guardian he arrived at the south terminal around 11am with zero communication from staff about what was happening. He said he met friends at a bar that couldn't serve anyone because staff couldn't wash their hands, adding, "I've never seen Wetherspoons empty."

Other passengers vented online about being unable to get hot drinks, wash their hands, or refill water bottles, according to the Guardian and the Indian Express. One Facebook user wrote: "Gasping for a drink & crossing my legs right now. This is ridiculous!"

Former MP and government "music champion" Michael Dugher posted that the airport should "at least allow people to use the chairs in all the closed restaurants and bars," pointing out that families were reduced to sitting on the floor because seating areas tied to shuttered restaurants were off-limits.

BBC passenger Paul Lee said he'd heard no announcements and seen no bottled water being handed out, despite the airport's claims that bottled water was available. "For people who need to go to the toilet, this isn't good," he told the BBC, adding that shops stayed open even as restaurants and lounges shut.

The airport's public statements consistently referenced bottled water distribution and staff support. Lee's account suggests that messaging didn't reach everyone in real time. Shops stayed open even as restaurants and lounges shut down.

What SES Water Said Happened

SES Water, which supplies parts of Surrey, Kent and south London beyond just the airport, said the outage stemmed from "a number of complications" tied to the power failure at Bough Beech, according to ITV News London. Customers in the TN11, RH1, RH6 and RH10 postcode areas also saw low pressure or temporary loss of supply, the company said, per the Guardian.

By early Sunday afternoon, SES Water said the treatment works were back online but cautioned that water still needed to be treated before service could fully normalize, according to the Indian Express, which cited the company's own social media updates. The company called it "a highly unusual and complex issue" and asked for patience while restoring the network.

Recovery and What's Still Unclear

By Sunday evening, Gatwick said water supply had returned to "the vast majority" of the campus, with most toilets reopened across both terminals, according to the BBC and ITV News London. The airport said it expected all toilets, restaurants and bars to be fully operational in time for Monday's first flights.

Gatwick apologized for the disruption and said extra staff had been deployed to both terminals to help passengers during the outage.

What's not addressed in any of the airport's or water company's statements is how many hours, precisely, the disruption lasted for the average passenger, or how many people were affected across the wider Sussex and Kent service area beyond the airport itself. SES Water has not detailed the root cause of the power outage at Bough Beech or whether steps are being taken to prevent a repeat.