Gatwick Airport is facing major disruption after a burst water main caused a water outage, with passengers reportedly being turned away from restaurants and toilets closed across the North Terminal
A major UK airport has been hit by another water outage, leading to the closure of toilets and restaurants, much to the fury of passengers.
Travellers at Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal have voiced their complaints about the water outage, with many reportedly being “turned away from restaurants”. The outage was triggered by a burst water main, which has disrupted the supply to the airport.
This comes hot on the heels of a similar water outage just weeks ago that left the airport without running water, functioning loos or access to bars. On July 26, a power failure at a water treatment plant in south-east England led to low water pressure and supply issues at the airport.
A spokesperson told The Sun: “We have a burst water main which is temporarily affecting supply including to Gatwick Airport. Our teams are on site and working to repair the burst as quickly and safely as possible.
“We are sorry for the disruption this is causing customers and will continue to provide updates.” Despite the problem, flight operations are carrying on as usual.
The affected area falls within the SES Water network, which serves customers across parts of Surrey, Kent and London, reports the Express. However, irate passengers at the airport have still taken to social media to air their grievances.
One individual posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): “You took your time to make this announcement. How about tell all your passengers at Gatwick Airport that all toilets are closed and all restaurants, bars, cafes are not operating, no hot food or drinks available anywhere.
“No notices issues anywhere at the airport.” Another user remarked: “Under investigation? That’s all you have after hours of no water? Any timetable? Utterly ridiculous and pathetic.”
Anthony Rochester, head of networks at SES Water, said the burst main was “temporarily affecting supply including Gatwick Airport”, and that teams were on site to repair the issue “as quickly and safely as possible”.
“We are sorry for the disruption this is causing customers and will continue to provide updates,” he added. This comes after Manchester, Stansted, and East Midlands airports have fallen prey to hackers, with customer data belonging to millions of passengers compromised.
The airports have been “subject to a cybersecurity incident by an unauthorised third party”, and customer data, including email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registrations, and postcodes, has been accessed, the Daily Star previously reported.
It is believed that data from 8.7 million customers was breached.
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