BA announces biggest Gatwick summer schedule in 10 years
#31
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: somewhere north of London, UK
Programs: HH Gold, BA Silver, Accor Silver
Posts: 15,245
Madeira last August (via some rock nearby after 2 go arounds due to wind) . Low oppressive ceilings designed I guess back in the 60s?, horribly overcrowded, smelly toilets and I particularly enjoyed the 1 and a quarter hour wait at passport control (with 2 children too young to use the egates - mind you the queues for those were pretty impressive as well). My wife did get to chat to Peter Andre standing behind us in the security queue on the way out tho - Other than that......
#32
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: South East, UK
Programs: BA Gold / GfL, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,432
Here's some more breaking news for you ... if you live south of London, Luton and Stansted are absolute pains to get to!
#33
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 116
The border area is tiny, too few emachines, too few desks with people backing up into the corridoors at peak- symptomatic of the whole terminal. Built (in 1958 according to Wiki) handling under 200,000 passengers p/a. Now handling 25 million p/a. Apart from Satellite which handles I guess no more than a few hundred people at any one time there's been no extension. If you cut straight to the lounge from security, avoiding the main areas and lift from lounge down to gates, don't get unlucky with passport on the way back - yes I can see it working ok, unfortunately that's not what the vast majority experience
#34
#35
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: LON
Programs: BA Gold; LH FTL; IHG Diamond; Marriott Gold; ALL Gold
Posts: 1,758
To be honest, if you live anywhere apart from the Luton airport check-in hall, Luton airport is a pain to get to. Even if you lived in Luton town centre, it's a 10 minute drive up the hill, followed by a £3 "drop-off charge"!
#37
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Brighton, England
Programs: BA Silver, VS, Costa Coffee, My Waitrose
Posts: 153
#38
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Exec Gold; Accor Le Club Gold
Posts: 122
From the platform it's: escalator, gates, across the check-in desks, escalator, fast track security, hard left for the lounge, across the upper floor of the departures area, lift, dragons, champagne. Easy in 10 minutes if things are quiet!
#39
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 124
Frankly I wish I could use Gatwick more for the lesser hassle of getting to it, but since the terminal move I've found myself flying only on LHR routes.
#40
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Quite close to NQY
Programs: BAEC Silver,clubcard,clubcard plus, BA Amex................ And Mucci x3 ;)
Posts: 9,488
It will be a shame if MAN, NCL and INV don’t get something from BA to gatters, I was also expecting increases in EDI , GLA and JER
cs
cs
#41
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Glasgow
Programs: British Airways Silver, Hilton Diamond, Accor Platinum, AMEX plat
Posts: 251
If they're going to use some ex-Monarch slots to compete with Norwegian on long-haul, might we see introduction of Gatwick to Boston, Chicago or Singapore?
#43
#44
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,848
From December, one will be able to change at Farringdon with Crossrail's Abbey Wood to Paddington service – the full through route rolls out in May 2019. Once both are open, getting to Gatwick, as well as Heathrow, will be far easier from a much wider range of places.
Out of curiosity I've just checked how long it will take to transfer between LHR and LGW once these are in place. Heathrow Central to Farringdon 31 minutes; Farringdon to Gatwick 45-50 minutes. For a total of around 1hr20, which compares fairly favourably to a National Express coach which seems to take between 1hr20 and 1hr40…
I, too, was hoping for a Newcastle route reinstatement – I'm not sure exactly when they disappeared. When I flew LGW-NCL in April 2010, it certainly wasn't BA - I think it was FlyBe?
#45
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,848