Gatwick (LGW) Minimum Connection Time in 2026: How Long Do You Really Need?

If your itinerary connects through London Gatwick (LGW), the layout works in your favor and the process works against you. The layout: two terminals, North and South, joined by a free shuttle that takes 2 minutes and runs every few minutes around the clock. No other major London-area hub moves you between terminals that fast. The process: Gatwick has no airside transit. The airport’s own connections guidance describes an international-to-international connection as landside transit, with the words “you must pass through UK border control.” Arrive from anywhere outside the UK and Ireland, and your connection includes an immigration queue and a full security re-screen before you see your departure gate, even if you never change terminals.

That trade shapes every number in this guide. Gatwick is also unusual in a helpful way: it is one of the few airports anywhere that publishes its own connection-time advice, at least 60 minutes for a same-terminal connection and at least 90 minutes across terminals. This guide covers what those figures assume, how the border and security steps actually play out, which airline lives in which terminal (including Jet2’s new base), easyJet’s self-connect product and its built-in minimums, and how Gatwick stacks up against the other hubs we have researched.

Quick reference: Gatwick connection times

Gatwick is unusual in giving you two reference points. The first is the OAG standard minimum connection time, the carrier-filed floor airlines use to validate an itinerary, which at Gatwick is a flat 60 minutes for every sector. The second is Gatwick’s own published advice for passengers holding an onward boarding pass: 60 minutes same terminal, 90 minutes between terminals. The realistic column adds the steps both quietly include: UK border control for international arrivals, the security re-screen everyone does, and the shuttle if you change terminals.

The OAG column is the airport STANDARD that airlines file with global reservation systems (verified via ExpertFlyer, June 2026); at Gatwick it is a flat 60 minutes, and easyJet, the airport’s largest carrier, files no exception to it. British Airways files 75 minutes for same-airline South Terminal connections and Ryanair files 120 minutes. The Gatwick-advice column is the airport’s own guidance for ticketed connections. Treat either published figure as the floor for a connection going perfectly, and the realistic column as what you should actually book.

Why every Gatwick connection goes through the border

At most big hubs the key question is whether you stay airside. At Gatwick the answer is simply no. The airport’s connections guidance lays out three cases:

1. Arriving from the UK or Ireland: you do not pass passport control. If your bags are checked through or you have hand luggage only, you go straight to security for your next flight.
2. Arriving from anywhere else, connecting to a domestic or international flight: you go through immigration at UK Border Force, collect bags if they are not checked through, and then clear security.
3. International to international: in Gatwick’s own words, “you must pass through UK border control.” The airport explicitly calls this landside transit and tells passengers to check visa requirements before traveling.

Two consequences follow. First, your immigration document situation matters even if London is just a dot on your itinerary: travelers from ETA nationalities (Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and others) need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation, GBP 20 (about $27), because there is no airside corridor that avoids the border. UK government guidance confirms an ETA holder does not need a separate transit visa for a landside connection. Second, the immigration queue is a real variable in your connection math. UK Border Force eGates take chipped passports from British and EU/EEA citizens plus nationals of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the USA, age 10 and over, and they are dramatically faster than the staffed desks at peak. If you are not eGate-eligible, pad harder.

The silver lining: compared to Heathrow, where a terminal change means a 15 to 25 minute landside bus before security, Gatwick’s worst-case transfer is a 2-minute shuttle. Once you accept that the border and the re-screen are unavoidable, the rest of the airport is simple.

Which airline uses which terminal at Gatwick?

TUI is the trap in this table: it operates from both terminals, split by flight-number prefix, TOM in the North and BY in the South. Check your booking confirmation, not a generic airline list.

Jet2 is the new arrival. On 26 March 2026 Jet2 launched its Gatwick base, which the airport called its largest airline launch in a decade, with 29 summer routes to Spain, Türkiye, Portugal, Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Croatia flown by six new Airbus A321neo aircraft from the South Terminal. For winter 2026/27 it has 23 destinations on sale. Connection-wise, treat Jet2 as point-to-point: its terms make no provision for through-checked connections, so any Jet2 leg in a multi-flight itinerary is effectively a separate ticket.

The 2-minute shuttle

Gatwick’s inter-terminal shuttle is the easiest transfer of any major UK hub: free, a 2-minute ride, departures every few minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The shuttle station sits close to the train station in the South Terminal, and you can take a luggage trolley on board, which tells you everything about which side of security it runs on. Budget 15 to 25 minutes door to door for the full terminal change including the walks at each end, then add the security queue at your departure terminal.

Security at Gatwick: faster lanes, same requirement

Gatwick has completed its move to CT security scanners, and the old 100ml liquids rule no longer applies there: liquids can go through security in containers of up to 2 litres (just over 2 quarts), as long as they are not in metal or double-walled containers, and laptops and other large electronics stay in your bag. Keep your boarding pass ready; your passport is not required at security itself.

Two cautions. First, the re-screen is unavoidable for connecting passengers, whatever the queue technology: Gatwick’s guidance routes every connection through security. Second, the 2-litre rule applies at Gatwick, not necessarily at the airport you fly back from, so pack your return leg to the strictest rule on your itinerary.

Self-connecting at Gatwick: easyJet’s product and everyone else

Gatwick’s traffic is dominated by point-to-point airlines that do not interline, so the airport has grown its own connection ecosystem:

• FlightConnections by easyJet (formerly Worldwide by easyJet, still reachable at worldwide.easyjet.com) is easyJet’s official self-connect product, powered by Dohop. It combines easyJet flights with partners including Aegean, Air Europa, Air Transat, Corsair, Emirates and Icelandair, and it enforces its own minimum connection time, which “can vary between 1 hour 30 minutes and 2 hours 30 minutes” in the product’s own words. Bags are not checked through: you collect after the first flight and re-check for the next. The ConnectSure option gets you rebooked by Dohop onto the next available flight if a delay breaks the connection. If you are building an easyJet connection yourself instead of through this product, its 1h30 to 2h30 window is the airline’s own estimate of safe, and you would be self-connecting with none of the protection.
• Your Service Centre, operated by SkyFix (South Terminal Check In Zone J, North Terminal level 2) offers re-protection for missed connections on behalf of TAP, Qatar Airways, Norwegian, Swiss and Air Europa, and can help arrange alternatives for anyone else, at your cost.
• GatwickConnects, the airport’s older self-connect brand, no longer appears anywhere on Gatwick’s official site, whose connections guidance now describes only the SkyFix service centre. Treat any reference to GatwickConnects as out of date.

If disruption on a UK or EU itinerary causes the miss, check our UK261 flight compensation guide, since rebooking and compensation are separate rights.

What if I’m on separate tickets at Gatwick?

The separate-ticket timeline at Gatwick looks like this:

1. Deplane and walk to immigration: 5-10 minutes
2. UK border control: 10 minutes with eGates, materially longer in staffed lanes at peak
3. Collect checked bags: 15-30 minutes
4. Shuttle to the other terminal if needed: 15-25 minutes door to door
5. Check in and drop bags with the second airline: 30-60 minutes
6. Security re-screen: 15-30 minutes
7. Walk to gate, boarding closes 45-60 minutes before departure on many carriers

Total: roughly 2 to 3 hours. Allow a minimum of 3 hours between scheduled arrival and departure, and remember Gatwick makes no flight calls: the screens are your only warning. The fact that easyJet’s own packaged product enforces up to 2 hours 30 minutes should anchor your expectations; do not give your hand-built connection less margin than the airline gives its protected one.

Gatwick vs other major hubs

Gatwick sits in the middle of this group, and it is an unusual middle. Its physical transfer is among the easiest anywhere, a 2-minute shuttle versus Heathrow’s bus fleet or JFK’s AirTrain loops. Its process is among the most demanding, because the border is mandatory for every international connection, where Heathrow at least lets single-ticket transit passengers stay airside. If you are eGate-eligible with hand luggage only, Gatwick connections are genuinely quick. If you are neither, the queue math looks more like the hard hubs.

When to add even more padding at Gatwick

• You are not eGate-eligible. The staffed immigration queue is your bottleneck and it scales with arrival banks. Add 30-45 minutes.
• Summer Saturday leisure waves. Gatwick is Europe’s busiest leisure hub and check-in, bag drop and security queues peak hard on holiday changeover days, roughly May to October weekends. Add 30 minutes.
• TUI on the wrong prefix. A TOM/BY mix-up silently adds a terminal change. Verify which terminal each flight uses, not just the airline.
• Last flight of the day. Many Gatwick routes are served once daily; a miss means an overnight. Book the earlier inbound.
• Separate tickets. 3 hours minimum, always.

The verdict: how much time do I need at Gatwick in 2026?

• UK or Ireland arrival, same terminal: Gatwick’s 60-minute advice works; 75 minutes is comfortable.
• International arrival, same terminal: 90 minutes to 2 hours, toward the high end if you are not eGate-eligible.
• Any terminal change: treat 90 minutes as the absolute floor per the airport’s advice; 2 to 2.5 hours is realistic with an international arrival.
• easyJet self-connect: book through FlightConnections by easyJet and inherit its 1h30 to 2h30 minimum with ConnectSure protection, rather than building the same itinerary unprotected.
• Separate tickets: 3 hours minimum.

The honest summary: Gatwick’s hardware is excellent and its rules are strict. Plan around the border, not the shuttle.

How Gatwick compares to other airports and airlines we’ve researched

• See our Heathrow minimum connection time guide for the other London hub, where no terminals connect airside and every transfer is a bus plus a re-screen.
• See our UK261 flight compensation guide for your rebooking and compensation rights when a delay breaks a UK connection.
• See our fastest airport connections ranking for where the major hubs fall, hub by hub.
• See our Ryanair vs easyJet comparison if you are weighing Europe’s two biggest budget carriers from a UK base.

Sources and methodology

Every figure traces to an official or industry-authoritative source, verified 2026-06-11:

• Published MCT data: OAG-filed standard minimum connection times, surfaced via ExpertFlyer’s Travel Information database and verified 2026-06-11. Gatwick’s airport STANDARD is a flat 60 minutes across all four sectors; easyJet files no exception (a carrier-specific query returns the standard), British Airways files 75 minutes for same-airline South Terminal connections, and Ryanair files 120 minutes. Governed by the IATA Minimum Connect Time User Guide.
• Gatwick’s published connection advice (60/90 minutes), the landside transit process, border control and security steps, and the SkyFix service centre: Gatwick’s flight connections guidance.
• Terminal allocations: Gatwick’s which-terminal page.
• Jet2’s Gatwick base: Gatwick media centre, 26 March 2026.
• Shuttle details: Gatwick’s flight connections guidance and FAQs (2 minutes, every few minutes, 24/7, trolleys permitted).
• FlightConnections by easyJet minimum connection time (1h30-2h30), baggage and ConnectSure terms: the product FAQ (verified via browser session, 2026-06-11).
• eGate eligibility: UK government border control guidance. ETA and transit rules: gov.uk ETA and gov.uk transit visa guidance.
• Security scanners and liquids: Gatwick security guide.
• Trains: Gatwick rail guidance (Gatwick Express 30 minutes to Victoria, twice hourly, from the South Terminal station).
• Realistic padding: editorial synthesis of the published OAG floor, the airport advisory, border and security steps and terminal geography, consistent with the framework used across our 20+ hub connection guides.

Where an airline files its own minimum connection time that differs from any airport figure, the airline’s filing governs what itineraries are sold. Always confirm the connection time on your specific booking.