Case Study: Gatwick Airport achieves 100x network capability uplift and zero-downtime operations with HPE Aruba Networking

Aruba Mobile First Architecture powers a platform for experience-oriented innovation at world’s most efficient, single-runway airport

Gatwick Airport, the world’s most efficient single‑runway airport handling 46 million passengers a year, faced a critical networking challenge: its 15‑year‑old architecture had limited data paths and risked disrupting tightly timed operations that process up to 12,000 passengers an hour. The airport needed a resilient, fully meshed, future‑proof network that could be deployed with no operational downtime and scale to support mobility, IoT and growing digital services across landside, airside and the tarmac.

Gatwick chose an end‑to‑end Aruba and HPE solution—including ~1,500 Aruba APs, ClearPass and AirWave, HPE FlexFabric switches, IRF and HPE 3PAR storage—implemented by HPE Pointnext in 18 months with zero downtime. The upgrade delivered ubiquitous wireless, simplified management, around 100x uplift in capacity and near‑zero interruptions, enabled 40+ digital projects (IoT, analytics, HD CCTV with ~10 PB of storage), improved passenger Wi‑Fi performance (>30 Mbps) and helped grow airport IT services revenue from £600k to £4.5m.

Gatwick Airport

Cathal Corcoran

Chief Information Officer