tuff

One of the consequences of the recent change of terminal at Gatwick airport is the fact that passengers on all domestic arrivals arrivals are bussed to the terminal. This of course removes the need to take the shuttle to the North terminal for the train station. However, there is a downside as well.

Last night we were on the last flight from Glasgow to LGW and, whilst waiting in the priority queue, it was interesting that some regulars hadn't realised that all domestIc Gatwick arrivals were bussed to the terminal.

When we landed the captain apologised for the "slight" delay to our flight. This means that on a flight that is usually just over an hour, a slight delay can be quantified as 25 minutes.

Although the buses were waiting for us, a member of BA staff wasn't . This meant that despite being in row one we had a long wait to get off the plane and by the time we finally reached the domestic arrivals the luggage had arrived before we did.

BA are showing arrival as when doors were opened not when we were actually let off the aircraft (caused by lack of BA staff) – about ten minutes later. Any advantage of not having to get the shuttle ( from the North Terminal) seems to have been negated by the bus transfer.


For the record BOB worked well and the said they covered the whole flight.

GLABA

Absolutely. I'd much rather have Alex my Easyjet captain talk to me than the bus. Today is my third trip down since the switch and I think its about 5mins slower to the train with additional hassle.

South is better to leave from, but arrivals isn't.

allturnleft

Still dont understand why Gatwick doesnt allow mixed arrivals like so many other UK airports

corporate-wage-slave

It's due to the layout of the building. No airport allows mixed arrivals per se, Common Travel Area passengers are always separated. South used to mix arriving passengers, until the very, very obvious loopholes were ruled to be not conducive to effective immigration controls. The layout of South simply doesn't allow for two streams, at least at the moment, since all arriving passengers are brought to the UK Border and there isn't space, in a fairly compact building, to add a separate channel. I guess something more could be done if some piers were dedicated to CTA flights and some building work undertaken. Or even if they continued the buses, if the processing of domestic could be made more user-friendly. As mentioned in the LGW South guide in the Dashboard, you best take the lifts rather than the stairs up.

I would complain to GAL about this, likely to be more effective than BA, and BA don't have a choice about this anyway.

skipness1E

Brand new Pier One surely could have been built to accomodate this surely?!

jmd

Quite a few of my friends and colleagues in JER (all BA status pax and very regular travellers) have started to notice this and are really unhappy. It's not just the bussing itself (which as others have said is a slow process), but the fact that the whole experience is very poor, including the climb up the steep staircase in the tin shed and the lack of access to flight connections. I agree that it is worth pestering GAL, but in reality unless BA makes a fuss nothing will happen. It feels like a noticeable step down from the old North Terminal experience, where there was at least a chance of a jetty 50% or so of the time, and where you could access flight connections even if bussed.

The combination of this and BOB have got plenty of people (including myself) thinking about using EZ instead.

FrancisA

DOM and CTA flights into the North terminal were also bussed if you did not come into one of the Gate55 sub gates or the other two domestic set up Gates (51 and 52?).

That could delay disembarkation and result in a magical mystery tour of the terminal depending on the gate.

South sounds worse, but these are first world problems. If a ten minute delay phases you, I'd avoid Southern Trains or the M25.

GLABA

Actually this morning was just under 20mins from arriving at stand to rail platform which wasn't bad.

GLABA

That was fairly rare though.

The problem is the delays are cumulative :-)

Although hopefully the southern situation is better now (I say from a Gatwick Express train).

TyneTraveller

When I recently tried this disembarking from an EDI flight, I took 14 minutes from doors opening to being at check in Zone A which is non too shabby. I can't say that this will be the case all the time and the route into the terminal does give the impression of being an inmate in a secure unit. Taking all factors into consideration, on balance the switch to LGW South seems to offer a better facility than the previous.

tuff

I think Alex has been sacked. The other week it was Kate the easyJet captain. Unless they are job sharing.

layz

If only you were talking about BA right now!

GLABA

:O

I might take a 10min Easyjet return on Thurs to see what the enhanced service is like.

cosmo74

Given some of the very long walks at Gatwick, a bus can potentially be a blessing - as long as it's all done efficiently.

simons1

I did it the other day. Kate was definitely at the controls, but there was no onboard service.