Size
According to CAA statistics, in one year Heathrow Airport carried a total of 80+ million passengers across 470,000+ aircraft movements. During that same year, Gatwick had just over half of this figure at 45 million passengers with 280,000+ aircraft movements.
While London Gatwick is aiming to be able to use its spare runway in the future, right now it has only one useable runway. London Heathrow, on the other hand, has two permanent runways. Heathrow Airport has an impressive five terminals, compared to Gatwick's two.
Variety
While Heathrow Airport undoubtedly has much more variety with more long-range international carriers, London Gatwick has a wider variety of types of operations. Heathrow lacks the low-cost element of Gatwick Airport. London Gatwick is a hub of low-cost operations, which London Heathrow is not.
Defining which is the better airport for travellers to and from London is difficult because at the end of the day it comes down to where they want to go and with which airline they are flying.
In summary:
What is the difference between the two London Airports?
Heathrow and Gatwick are two international airports based in London, United Kingdom. Their full names are London Heathrow International Airport and London Gatwick International Airport respectively.
Heathrow is London’s (and the country’s) main and busiest airport. Gatwick follows as the secondary and second busiest airport. Heathrow is larger and has better links in and out of the airport to Central London.
Heathrow has five terminals and four runways. Meanwhile, Gatwick has two terminals and two runways.
Heathrow is nearer to Central London. The airport is located 25 kilometres west of the capital. Travel time is usually 15 minutes. On the other hand, Gatwick is located 45 kilometres south of London. It takes 30 minutes to get in and out of the city to the airport and vice-versa.
Heathrow is the base of many airlines from every corner of the globe. On the other hand, Gatwick services three kinds of airlines: charter, full service, and economy.
In simple terms, Heathrow is mostly used by passenger planes while Gatwick Airport is used mostly by charter planes that land in London and the economy or no-frills airlines.
Heathrow is named after a hamlet. In contrast, Gatwick is named after a family and a manor house that bears the family name.
We hope we have shed some light onto the two airports and how they differ.