Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport is the UK’s second largest airport. It serves more than 228 destinations in 74 countries for 46m passengers a year on short and long-haul point-to-point services. It is also a major economic driver and generates around 85,000 jobs nationally, with 24,000 of these located on the airport. The airport is south of Central London with excellent public transport links, including the Gatwick Express, and is part of the Oyster contactless payment network. Gatwick Airport is owned by a group of international investment funds, of which Global Infrastructure Partners is the largest shareholder.

Gatwick is investing in the transformation of the airport and the reconfiguration of Pier 5 was an essential development for the North Terminal, allowing an enhanced passenger experience. SES Engineering Services (SES) was appointed to work with Gatwick in a challenging 24/7 operational airfield environment.

SES made extensive use of its industry-leading prefabrication factory, Prism. The specialist team delivered a series of innovative offsite solutions including 78 modularised chilled beams with support frame cable containment, ladder, pipework isolation and control valves all pre-installed at the Prism factory. The whole unit was then fitted with wheels and shrink-wrapped ready for transportation to site.

This process significantly reduced the number of hours’ onsite, whilst overcoming the many logistical programme and delivery challenges that an airport of this scale faces.

Gatwick Airport Pier 5 officially opened in February 2016.