Budget Travel - Low Cost Terminals

Living so close to Stansted has forced me onto LC carriers (since 1993) when travelling on business. Repeated trips on these crates is bad enough but having recently flown from AMS and LYS I have noticed the emergence of the low cost terminal. Once through security, you are into a glorified bus station and summoned for your flights (particularly EZ) far too early. When you are through boarding you do not go straight on the plane, but have to stand in the loading pen, for what seems like hours (usually half hour min has been my experience). No restrooms, no seats and no more!:mad:

Living so close to Stansted has forced me onto LC carriers (since 1993) when travelling on business. Repeated trips on these crates is bad enough but having recently flown from AMS and LYS I have noticed the emergence of the low cost terminal. Once through security, you are into a glorified bus station and summoned for your flights (particularly EZ) far too early. When you are through boarding you do not go straight on the plane, but have to stand in the loading pen, for what seems like hours (usually half hour min has been my experience). No restrooms, no seats and no more!:mad:

Add Marseille Provence mp2 (mp3?? I'm trying to block it from my memory so I have no idea what it's called!!) terminal to that list... :(

It's been like that at Schiphol for years.

Add KUL LCC terminal to the list of crappy terminals.

The LCC terminal in Singapore is slightly better, but it's not Changi.

The recently closed town Etiuda LCC terminal at WAW was a disgrace.

If anyone has ever been through BBU airport, it's worse than a bus station.

Who remembers People Express' old North Terminal at Newark? That has to be one of the worst!

...When you are through boarding you do not go straight on the plane, but have to stand in the loading pen, for what seems like hours...:mad:
...and listen to the tautology of the "last and final" call for each flight:D

Add KUL LCC terminal to the list of crappy terminals.

The LCC terminal in Singapore is slightly better, but it's not Changi.

Your statement regarding LCCT at KUL is questionable ...:rolleyes:
In particular when comparing to Changi´s low cost terminal !:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

It is correct that the LCCT is actually "overcrowded" but offers all amenities one needs for travel (toilets/food court/reasonable ground transportation/etc.).

The LCC terminal at Changi only seems better because there are literally just a handful of flights operating into/out of it thus you have plenty of space and no noise ...

But both terminals at KUL as well as SIN are waaaaayyyy better than STN and a couple of other European LCCT´s (some true examples being listed already)

But both terminals at KUL as well as SIN are waaaaayyyy better than STN and a couple of other European LCCT´s (some true examples being listed already)

I wouldn't call STN are low cost terminal. All three terminals are equally equipped. The point of the thread was really to highlight the growth of the bus stations attached to regular airports that house the LCCs - loading pens and all. ie Term H at AMS and (especially) Term C at LYS. You just knew what they were thinking....

These examples are different from the low many cost airports knocked up in the middle of nowhere to support RFA's European invasion. With these, you kind of accept as the whole "airport" is of the same standard. It's a different feeling from arriving at Term 2 at LYS and then entering Term 3.

Living so close to Stansted has forced me onto LC carriers (since 1993) when travelling on business.

I'm intrigued.... why do you think you're being forced to use LCCs just because you live close to STN? I appreciate that if you like in somewhere like Takeley or Great Dunmow then it's difficult to justify flying from anywhere else... but on the other hand surely you have the choice? If you're close to STN you can't be that far from LCY...

My mother lives very close to LBC, and I used to fly STN-LBC to visit her. For various reasons I decided, about three years ago, that I will no longer fly Ryanair, so I've gone back to flying to HAM.

To get back to the original topic... while STN doesn't have a separate terminal for LCCs (no need, as most non-LCCs have now gone elsewhere!) I still find there is a bit of a difference between the satellites and the (newer) part of the airport that most Ryanair flights go from... you have that long long long walk for starters! (I'm sure the Ryanair area is no closer to the main terminal than the satellites that you go to by train)

Slight OT (again!):

The very first time I flew Ryanair from STN (June 2000) we were bussed to a separate building which appeared to be used mostly by charter airlines. I've not been there since. Is it still there?

Aviatrix,

Regarding the bus situation in 2000, that was, I think, due to train being suspended whilst the RFA terminal was constructed. I find all terminals more or less comparable, though, and certainly not the step change you see when entering the murky LYS Term C.

I tend to force myself to choose STN because of the time it saves rather than being forced to do so by, say, my company. Agree with you on the LCY option - I've done that quite a few times but the menu is a bit limited.

Your statement regarding LCCT at KUL is questionable ...:rolleyes:
In particular when comparing to Changi´s low cost terminal !:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
)

No it's not questionable at all. The LCC in KL is horribly overcrowded, offers limited seating before on the land side, and the 'reasonably priced food' could only be in comparison to Europe.

Your average bus station also offers toilets/food/ground transport options but is probably less crowded and better air-conditioned.

Yes part of the reason the LCC at Changi is better is because it is less crowded. I guess if you mean by 'seems better', 'is better' than we agree.

You do get the lucky door prize however, I've never heard anybody defend the terminal before. Including Air Asia themselves, who are desperate to get out of there.

Add the new, and completely unnecessary, LCC terminal in Jakarta to the list.

It boiling hot, boarding any flight requires passengers from 12 different gates to go down 1 of two sets of stairs and board a bus.

No it's not questionable at all. The LCC in KL is horribly overcrowded, offers limited seating before on the land side, and the 'reasonably priced food' could only be in comparison to Europe.

Your average bus station also offers toilets/food/ground transport options but is probably less crowded and better air-conditioned.

Yes part of the reason the LCC at Changi is better is because it is less crowded. I guess if you mean by 'seems better', 'is better' than we agree.

You do get the lucky door prize however, I've never heard anybody defend the terminal before. Including Air Asia themselves, who are desperate to get out of there.

Add the new, and completely unnecessary, LCC terminal in Jakarta to the list.

It boiling hot, boarding any flight requires passengers from 12 different gates to go down 1 of two sets of stairs and board a bus.

I understand your point ... but ...

Of course KUL´s LCCT is anything but a comfortable place to transit through but there are seating banks outside and i have never had the case not to get a seat there !
Regarding pricelevel of stores ... Of course it is more expensive than downtown (i have yet to experience an airport with same or lower pricelevel compared to downtown ... )
Regarding Changi´s LCCT: It´s certainly nice if it´s a relaxed and calm place but it´s not what an airport terminal is built for.;)
I´ve seen more comfortable rest places of that size !!!
So, i don´t count your comment as "the truth"

Aviatrix,

I much prefer the walk to/from where most of Ryanair's Stansted flights depart/arrive to using the train. It seems quicker to me. I detest the hanging around for a transit on arrival when all I want to do is get out of the airport.

Any exercise is good, especially after a couple of hours sitting down. For this reason I'll also avoid the escalators in favour of stairs on arrival (where possible).

Aviatrix,

I much prefer the walk to/from where most of Ryanair's Stansted flights depart/arrive to using the train. It seems quicker to me. I detest the hanging around for a transit on arrival when all I want to do is get out of the airport.

Any exercise is good, especially after a couple of hours sitting down. For this reason I'll also avoid the escalators in favour of stairs on arrival (where possible).

I don't mind walking - and I too take stairs rather than lifts or escalators.

However, there are many for whom the walk is quite an ordeal. I know that my mother would only be able to manage it with very great difficulty, and my mother-in-law would not be able to manage it at all. They're not disabled, they lead normal active lives. They are just elderly and not as fit and strong as they once were.

Long walks like this should come with healt warnings.

Oh, and a quick reply to CityRules while I am here - no, the train was not suspended in June 2000. I took lots of flights from STN during that summer, mostly Ryanair, and it was only that one flight (Ryanair's first-ever to LBC) that departed from that outbuilding. All others departed from the satellites (as the "Ryanair Terminal" hadn't been built). I think that building was just an overspill area.

Oh, and a quick reply to CityRules while I am here - no, the train was not suspended in June 2000. I took lots of flights from STN during that summer, mostly Ryanair, and it was only that one flight (Ryanair's first-ever to LBC) that departed from that outbuilding. All others departed from the satellites (as the "Ryanair Terminal" hadn't been built). I think that building was just an overspill area.

Aha - it was actually wintertime when the train was suspended for a good few weeks, hence the crossed purposes. I was actually off the LCCs at the time and on KLM UK. Wish they'd never given up on Stansted :( They even had a lounge :D

I prefer to walk - my fate is then in my own hands when it comes to the race from plane to immigration. So frustrating to be caught up at the train. Also, I think the walk from the RFA terminal heavily depends on the gate at which you arrive and I don't really see the walk as any further than some of the remote gates at LHR or LGW.