Swiss Tony

Must admit I heard similar stories of long waits for immigration at Gatwick in August from a colleague who has young kids. But unfortunately that's not a function of the terminal not being fit for purpose - it's understaffing of the border...

gms

Surely if you live north of London you are more likely to choose Luton or Stansted?

Here's some more breaking news for you ... if you live south of London, Luton and Stansted are absolute pains to get to!

Swissroll

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

Raffles

Has King of Trainers gone yet? I didn't think it would survive long under the new regime.

Deltus

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 Ł3 "drop-off charge"!

NA-Flyer

It looks like BA wants to compete against Norwegian and Easy Jet out of LGW! I wonder how things will go for BA?

Lgwfan

King of Trainers remains, as the anchor store for Gatwick South shoppers !

So you will still be able to buy a pair of shinny white trainers next time you come through

LondonTechTraveller

When it works well it is amazingly quick. I'm sure I once timed it as 5 minutes but I now can't really believe it.

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!

esspeebee

The St Pancras/Thameslink route, or any part of the eastern half of the country whose train service goes into Kings Cross. Gatwick is easier than Heathrow for me - train into Kings Cross, cross the road and go down the escalators onto the Thameslink train. For LHR it's either a long tube ride, in less comfort than the Thameslink train, or a tube ride and another connection through Paddington. Even arriving into Liverpool Street I don't see how Heathrow is easier than Gatwick.

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.

cornishsimon

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

AMBurns1512

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?

sm0611

Very good news what with the new Thameslink service between Cambridge and Gatwick starting up later this year.

Raffles

squawk

The good news is that Gatwick should get substantially easier to access via public transport over the 12-18 months. The Thameslink Programme will finally mean that trains from Peterborough and Cambridge (as well as the current Bedford line) will continue through the centre of London to Gatwick – I think in May this year.

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?

squawk

I was going to put that in my post above, but thought it would be churlish…