Water supplies to London's Gatwick Airport have been restored after a power cut at a local treatment works affected both terminals on Sunday.
Airport authorities said on Monday that the airport was “operating as normal”.
“We are pleased to report that the water supply has fully returned to the airport. All toilet facilities are open – as well as food and beverage outlets,” it said in a statement on X.
The issue had resulted in toilets not working and the closure of restaurants and bars, passengers said on social media. The closures also resulted in a lack of seats in other parts of the airport.
Local water supplier SES Water said the treatment facility was back up and running on Sunday afternoon.
“We now need to treat the water before returning services to normal as quickly as we possibly can,” it said in a statement.
Gatwick, Britain's second busiest airport after Heathrow, said water supplies in both of its terminals had been affected. It said bottled water was made available to passengers and staff across the airport and “other contingency measures” were put in place to ensure their welfare.
It said it recognised the “inconvenience” caused by the water shortage.
However, many passengers took to social media to criticise the situation, with many complaining about a lack of communication or consideration.
Former MP Nigel Evans messaged the airport directly, saying: “Hi Gatwick – let’s say you have a water issue – no running water … what is your contingency plan? Seriously – several hours later …. Did Plan B kick in? Seriously – no?”
Another passenger questioned the contingency planning. “Where are the chemical toilets? We need an independent investigation,” he wrote.
Ben Ofoedu said queues for toilets were 30 minutes long, while some restaurants that closed would not allow passengers to sit there.
Ed Hall wrote that the airport was “broken”. He said: “Lounges are closed. All bars and restaurants are closed. WHSmith doing a roaring trade in sandwiches and soft drinks. No information about what has gone wrong or when it might be fixed. Proper Third World experience.”
SES Water said in a statement on Sunday: “We are pleased to provide an update that our Bough Beech water treatment works are back up and running. We now need to treat the water before returning services to normal as quickly as we possibly can.
“We would like to thank customers and our partners at Gatwick Airport for their continued patience, and we are sorry for the inconvenience this is causing.”
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal will this week hear a case brought by Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE), which aims to overturn a High Court judgment that allowed development consent for a second runway at Gatwick.
The planned expansion would involve repurposing the airport’s emergency runway as a second operational runway, which is expected to lead to an extra 100,000 flights a year. The realigned runway could be used for departures by narrow-bodied planes such as the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737.
The airport, south of London, currently handles about 280,000 flights a year and is the busiest single-runway airport in Europe.
The standby runway is currently used for aircraft taxiing to and from terminals, and when the main runway is closed for emergencies or maintenance.
The airport believes the £2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) plan would create thousands of jobs and help kick-start the UK economy.
