Efficient Airports

[ravenbluemoon]

A quick run down of most of the airports I've been to:

Stansted a.k.a. Stan's Shed: My regular haunt. If you're not travelling at a peak time, it's a doddle driving there from the M11. I'll often park in Mid-Stay, which has a regular shuttle bus that takes 5 minutes - the free drop off is here too. Had issues with Long-Stay buses not bothering to turn up, and takes ages to get to the terminal, so don't bother with that one. I'll occasionally plump for Meet&Greet, which is pretty much in front of the terminal. Drop keys in the office, collect when I arrive back, and they've often warmed and defrosted the car ready for you. Coach travel is good too - the coach station is right outside next to the Meet&Greet. Never used the trains as they're useless unless coming from London.

Inside is a different matter. The £7 for the Fast Track security is worth every penny. Everything beyond the security seems to work ok (except for the WiFi), if a little bit crowded and chaotic in the glorified shopping mall bit. Returning into the UK can vary - sometimes there's hardly any queue, sometimes it is rammed. Depends on if the E-Passport machines are working and how mardy the staff are.

Gothenburg Landvetter - Pretty awesome. Motorway link right to the door. Taxi and drop off points are barely 100m away from the entrance. Everything inside is clean and efficient. Occasionally a bus is required to get to the plane, this is partly due to ongoing renovations, and partly because Ryanair manage to throw toys out of the pram and annoy the airport a couple of years back.

Gothenburg City - Now closed, and although a bit more of a pain to get to at the north of the city, it was basically a large shed with three gates on a former Air Force Base. I hold the record for going from car seat to plane seat in 14 minutes

Copenhagen - For it's size, it handles things really well. Prepare to walk for miles if you're on a cheapo flight and use the economy wing of the terminal. But the train station is directly underneath which provides Metro into Copenhagen, and trains to Malmo and beyond.

Birmingham - Not flown from it myself, but dropped the OH off there. Seems pretty good. Layout is intuitive. OH had no complaints even though we were in a rush having being stuck on the M42.

Leeds/Bradford - not sure what it is like now, but seemed a decent little airport. Once you get there... road links to it are naff. Blew a fuse when I got trapped into paying the drop off fee due to missing/hidden signage and no chance to turn around.

Luton - Crap. Though they're doing it up so improvements may happen.

Papa Westray - Amazingly efficient. Place luggage on 1970s vintage bathroom scales in a brick outhouse. Walk through farm gate. Get on plane. Kirkwall was a lovely little airport too.

In a week or so I'm going to try Aalborg in Denmark for something different - spend half a day sightseeing followed by the evening ferry to Gothenburg. Couldn't resist the £7.99 flight...

[Chris Bertram]

A quick run down of most of the airports I've been to:

Stansted a.k.a. Stan's Shed: ... Never used the trains as they're useless unless coming from London.

There's a regular (mostly hourly) service from Birmingham New Street as well, serving Cambridge, Peterborough and Leicester plus some intermediate stops. So that covers connections with the ECML, the MML and WCML. Still no good?

[Johnathan404]

The bigger problem with Stansted Express is that most of the flights depart in the early morning. This means departing Liverpool Street at about 4am: fine if you live within a reasonable distance of that station, but I've got another two hour train journey before that. Obviously there are no 2am departures from Fareham, so instead I'd end up on the 10pm train - all a bit much when I can drive there in less than three hours (M25 permitting).

[Fenlander]

A quick run down of most of the airports I've been to:

Stansted a.k.a. Stan's Shed: ... Never used the trains as they're useless unless coming from London.

There's a regular (mostly hourly) service from Birmingham New Street as well, serving Cambridge, Peterborough and Leicester plus some intermediate stops. So that covers connections with the ECML, the MML and WCML. Still no good?

The in laws catch the Liverpool - Stansted slow crawler when they visit us (they get off a Peterborough), so it is possible to get there eventually by train from the wrong side of the country.

[Berk]

You’re forgetting that the Birmingham connection is not only diesel, but crosses the Leicester-Peterborough-Cambridge line to get there. Signal, and failures are not uncommon.

I would only rate punctuality at 7/10. This is why I prefer to use London airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick, with their EMU services on commuter lines. Much more reliable.

[Berk]

The bigger problem with Stansted Express is that most of the flights depart in the early morning. This means departing Liverpool Street at about 4am: fine if you live within a reasonable distance of that station, but I've got another two hour train journey before that. Obviously there are no 2am departures from Fareham, so instead I'd end up on the 10pm train - all a bit much when I can drive there in less than three hours (M25 permitting).

Another reason I won’t fly from it.

[FleetlinePhil]

A quick run down of most of the airports I've been to:

Stansted a.k.a. Stan's Shed: ... Never used the trains as they're useless unless coming from London.

There's a regular (mostly hourly) service from Birmingham New Street as well, serving Cambridge, Peterborough and Leicester plus some intermediate stops. So that covers connections with the ECML, the MML and WCML. Still no good?

The in laws catch the Liverpool - Stansted slow crawler when they visit us (they get off a Peterborough), so it is possible to get there eventually by train from the wrong side of the country.

The Liverpool train is actually going to Norwich, not Stansted, so a change at Peterborough or Ely is still required.

I've done Stansted a few times travelling ECML from Leeds to Peterborough, but going it's quite a tight connection and you could easiIy lose an hour! Conversely, I was lucky enough to dash down the ramp and catch a train an hour earlier than I expected upon return from Estonia.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

You’re forgetting that the Birmingham connection is not only diesel, but crosses the Leicester-Peterborough-Cambridge line to get there. Signal, and failures are not uncommon.

I would only rate punctuality at 7/10. This is why I prefer to use London airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick, with their EMU services on commuter lines. Much more reliable.

The rail connection from Birmingham to Stansted also follows a very indirect route between Leicester and Peterborough. It is more than 30 miles between the northernmost point on the Birmingham to Stansted rail line at Melton Mowbray and the direct road route via the A14.

[Burns]

Not enough staff??

What? Every single time? Nah, it's because they're inefficient.

[multiraider2]

I went to airports many times when young as a plane spotter, but I seem to bit of a Jonah as a flyer. The fuel gagues weren't working on my first ever flight and they had to pump it all out and try again. Left six hours late. A flight to Dublin with our young family had a fire evacuation of the whole terminal followed by a huge thunderstorm grounding all flights and at other times we have had large delays. So it doesn't seem to matter how efficient the airport is.

Having said that, Gatwick is by far the easiest for me. It's 15 minutes on a fast train from East Croydon. The station is in the south terminal and there is the monorail if going to the north terminal. I have mentioned previously but on a trip back from the US in a 747, it was once less than one hour from touchdown to inside our house. Bagage was on the carousel when we came to it and our cases appeared about third up and that helps.

Napoli Airport was rather efficient last year. I think our flight landed at 11.30 pm and we were at our hotel check in desk, which was a short taxi rode away, before midnight. Car hire is not in the airport though and you have to take a shuttle bus.

Shortest ever exit was at Alghero, Sardinia. Flew there in 1991 and there was a limited amount of aircraft movements with planes parking right in front of the terminal and everything in one moderatley sized building from what I recal.

[vlad]

I may have said this before but it bears repeating after yesterday. At all the other airports I've been to, by the time I've got through passport control and to baggage claim, the bags from my flight are already on the conveyor.

This has never happened to me, with the exception of airports in Russia as it takes so long to get through passport control that by the time you get to baggage claim the handlers have changed shift. I once went to Alderney on a plane with 5 passengers and watched them offload the luggage before they let us off the plane. We still got to baggage claim before the bags.

I'm amazed. Where do you fly from/to?

[Johnathan404]

I once flew from Gatwick and managed to get seated on my long-haul flight before my suitcase.

[Burns]

I may have said this before but it bears repeating after yesterday. At all the other airports I've been to, by the time I've got through passport control and to baggage claim, the bags from my flight are already on the conveyor.

This has never happened to me, with the exception of airports in Russia as it takes so long to get through passport control that by the time you get to baggage claim the handlers have changed shift. I once went to Alderney on a plane with 5 passengers and watched them offload the luggage before they let us off the plane. We still got to baggage claim before the bags.

I'm amazed. Where do you fly from/to?

Oslo and Bergen. On all occasions, my bag has either been there or minutes from appearing. I've yet to wait more than five minutes at the conveyor. When I last arrived in Oslo, I got there at 2:10pm, got through passport control and baggage reclaim by 2:20 and I'd picked up my car by 2:25. I could have been on the road by 2:25 but I didn't set off till about 2:40. I faff about setting up my dashcam and familiarising myself with where everything is before I drive a hire car.

[trickstat]

I may have said this before but it bears repeating after yesterday. At all the other airports I've been to, by the time I've got through passport control and to baggage claim, the bags from my flight are already on the conveyor.

This has never happened to me, with the exception of airports in Russia as it takes so long to get through passport control that by the time you get to baggage claim the handlers have changed shift. I once went to Alderney on a plane with 5 passengers and watched them offload the luggage before they let us off the plane. We still got to baggage claim before the bags.

I'm amazed. Where do you fly from/to?

As I mentioned upthread, Geneva (in 1998) was the first airport where my luggage reached the carousel before me. One or two others have matched this since, I think Munich was one of them.

[Burns]

Following on, I was talking to a colleague who has just returned from Estonia (he has family there). His experience with Tallinn airport is again that by the time you come off the plane and get through customs, your bags will either be on the carousel or only a few minutes from arrival. Edinburgh's 15 minutes to half an hour is looking increasingly pathetic.

[danfw194]

Anglesey Airport has great road connectivity - spitting distance from both junctions 3 and 4 of the A55. Ok the airport literally flys just one route but still, its efficient for that handful of passengers!

[Glenn A]

I know it's not British, but Schiphol in Amsterdam is an excellent airport. Only one terminal, so you can't go to the wrong one, a large railway station underneath the station that has trains to the city centre every 10 mins and connections with most of the Netherlands and some international services, a huge taxi rank at the entrance, and easy access to the Dutch motorway network and central Amsterdam. Not sure about the hotels, but the transport access is excellent.
In this country, Newcastle seems to be one of the best. One terminal that is easy to navigate, Metro services to central Newcastle every 10 minutes, large car parks, two hotels on site with shuttle buses, a service station and the D2 A696 as you come out with the A1 two miles away.

[roadtester]

Anglesey Airport has great road connectivity - spitting distance from both junctions 3 and 4 of the A55. Ok the airport literally flys just one route but still, its efficient for that handful of passengers!

And also an operational RAF base, which makes it quite interesting! I flew there once on a charter for a car launch.

[mikehindsonevans]

I know it's not British, but Schiphol in Amsterdam is an excellent airport. Only one terminal, so you can't go to the wrong one, a large railway station underneath the station that has trains to the city centre every 10 mins and connections with most of the Netherlands and some international services, a huge taxi rank at the entrance, and easy access to the Dutch motorway network and central Amsterdam. Not sure about the hotels, but the transport access is excellent.
In this country, Newcastle seems to be one of the best. One terminal that is easy to navigate, Metro services to central Newcastle every 10 minutes, large car parks, two hotels on site with shuttle buses, a service station and the D2 A696 as you come out with the A1 two miles away.

Glenn, as a counterpoint to not regarding Schipol as "British". I live a one-hour walk (10-minute drive) from our local Southampton "International" Airport here on the South Coast., so we are able to hop easily to Schipol and pick up the KLM/Air Frog network. Any airport which works well and is easy to get to can be badged as "honorary British" in my book. I cannot imagine that the Dutch would put their business model at risk by being awkward for UK visitors post-Brexit (whilst Heathrow is shifting tree-huggers and trying to open R3 for 2025).

Now, as a matter of choice we normally choose, for Internationals, to head up to LHR (or LGW for BA's Caribbean services) because our favourite airline is BA. For local flights within the UK (family in Cheshire and Glasgow) we have Flybe from Southampton right on our doorstep.

We're happy!

[Glenn A]

On the occasions when I've flown to Newcastle airport - for work, therefore hand baggage only - I've been through arrivals and onto the Metro pretty quickly too.

If only the Metro was a bit quicker, takes an age with all the intermediate stops to get into Newcastle centre. Ideally they'd have an express service between the airport and Central Station so you can connect with mainline services - obviously impossible given the track layout.

As it happens I was heading for Jesmond, so not so bad. I did try the trip by train, but it's an awful long time on a train, twice in a day. The flight from BHX is nice and short, at least - I used Eastern Airways who seem to specialise in this sort of short-haul business flight. The only problem was one occasion when they managed to leave the baggage on the trolley at Newcastle while the return flight took off as normal - this meant I had to make a special trip to BHX to collect my laptop the following morning.

There have been rumours of a heavy rail service to Newcastle city centre that would branch off at Forest Hall, but this has never come to light, even though it would be far better for passengers with luggage in a hurry.