Gatwick's new arrival lounge set to open

The new North Terminal facility will open on October 20 following a two week period of testing.

The 8,000sqm space is part of the airport's £1 billion investment in its ongoing transformation.

Construction work started just one year ago on the project.

The check-in hall will open in two phases between October 2015 and April 2016 – with a new layout and more space, increasing peak check-in capacity from 3,000 to 4,350 passengers per hour.

This follows successful trials of a self-service bag drop zone in the South Terminal which saw reduced queuing times.

The self-service bag drop will enable passengers who have checked in online to take their bags straight to a machine upon arrival at the airport, where they can print their luggage tag, apply it to their bag and load it straight onto the state-of-the-art baggage sorting system.

There will be 60 check-in points with 48 of these being self-service bag drop units - 28 of these will be open for the October date.

This means the check-in process can be completed in less than two minutes, bosses said.

Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said: “We have added eight million passengers since we came into private ownership in 2009, and we are about to reach the 40 million mark. This is a decade ahead of industry predictions and we will continue to grow.

“While we wait for a decision on building a new runway, we are investing billions to ensure we can grow from our existing infrastructure, but this will only take us so far.

“Gatwick remains the best and most deliverable option for expansion – we can go from the world’s most efficient single runway airport to the world’s most efficient two-runway airport while limiting the impact on the environment.”

The Airports Commission recommended earlier this year that the Government back Heathrow's bid for expansion over Gatwick's.

Gatwick bosses have argued against the recommendation and called on MPs to ignore the commission's decision.