Gatwick Water Outage Exposes Infrastructure Vulnerability at UK's Second-Busiest Airport

A power outage at SES Water's Bough Beech treatment plant on 26 July 2026 cut water to Gatwick Airport and parts of Surrey and Kent, closing toilets, bars, and restaurants across both terminals. Flights continued uninterrupted. The UK's second-busiest airport lacks on-site water redundancy, leaving sanitation and hospitality services dependent on a single off-site municipal supply.