Efficient Airports

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Mark Hewitt
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Mark Hewitt »

Probably not Palma Airport, considering handles some 28 million passengers in an out of Mallorca every year, you'd think it would be a bit better. But every time we go we always end up in a big queue to get into seemingly a single operated lift to go up to either the checkin floor or the departures floor. Or you have to go to the crazy circular walkway building, it just seems very inefficient.

I guess if you don't have a pushchair with you then you just take the escalators, but that hasn't been the case since 2011!
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by KeithW »

bikingbunny wrote:Singapore Airport by a country mile...its cleaned,modern and staff less in some parts...very easy to transit through...
My favourite thing at Changi was discovering that you could take a shower while waiting for the onward flight to Sydney. They supplied towels, soap and shampoo. After 14 hours from the UK a shower, shave and change of underclothes and shirt was lifesaver.
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Mark Hewitt
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Mark Hewitt »

KeithW wrote:
bikingbunny wrote:Singapore Airport by a country mile...its cleaned,modern and staff less in some parts...very easy to transit through...
My favourite thing at Changi was discovering that you could take a shower while waiting for the onward flight to Sydney. They supplied towels, soap and shampoo. After 14 hours from the UK a shower, shave and change of underclothes and shirt was lifesaver.
I've done that at Stansted arrivals before. 5 hour flight from Madiera and wanted a shower before the 5 hour drive home. Although it wasn't exactly selibrius and the staff at the desk seemed a bit confused as they knew about the service but I think I must have been the first person to ask for it that year.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by avtur »

Berk wrote:
BigBazz wrote:
avtur wrote:In an effort to make 'more efficient' use of the roads around all three terminals Manchester Airport have announced they will be charging £3 for all passenger drop off's by car outside the terminal buildings. In an attempt to keep cars away from the terminal buildings there will be 'free' drop off points further away which will require the use of shuttle buses to link drop off point to the terminals. Starts in June.
The official reasoning behind introducing the charge is to reduce congestion, particularly during the current expansion programme. The free drop off will be in the existing JetPark 1 site on Thorley Lane (accessed off the Terminal 2 roundabout).

It's left as an exercise for the reader as to whether you believe their reasoning or not, of course...
The Airport company Chief Operating Officer appeared om Radio Manchester this morning taking part in an hour long phone in, not surprisingly the parking issue was well covered. She said the fundamental reason for bringing the charge was to influence people into staying away from the terminal forecourt drop off zones and that in setting the price it had to be high enough to have that effect. If people just 'suck up and pay' the charge and continue to use the terminal forecourt drop off zones in the same number then she will be judged to have failed in her objective of reducing forecourt traffic. I wonder if that is written into her personal performance contract?

She did claim that rather then making money the revenue expected from people who do pay for terminal drop off to be used to provide the infrastructure for the free remote drop off facility, we'll have to wait and see if that turns out to be the case. Implementation of the new charge is planned for 1st June, which is a Friday. She did say that would not be a good day to make changes and that it would probably start the following week.
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Berk
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Berk »

So is there any link between creating exclusion zones, and introducing a drop off charge?? :scratchchin:

At least in Jersey they seem honest about wanting to improve security, and protecting the public. Rather than dissembling and suggesting it’s for commercial reasons.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Herned »

KeithW wrote: My favourite thing at Changi was discovering that you could take a shower...
The best thing at Changi is the outdoor swimming pool and poolside bar on the roof, all airside. I can think of a few reasons that wouldn't work as well in Luton :D
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Berk »

Herned wrote:
KeithW wrote: My favourite thing at Changi was discovering that you could take a shower...
The best thing at Changi is the outdoor swimming pool and poolside bar on the roof, all airside. I can think of a few reasons that wouldn't work as well in Luton :D
Campari and soda?? :laugh:
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Scratchwood »

Herned wrote:
KeithW wrote: My favourite thing at Changi was discovering that you could take a shower...
The best thing at Changi is the outdoor swimming pool and poolside bar on the roof, all airside. I can think of a few reasons that wouldn't work as well in Luton :D
If the pool was outside on the roof...you'd be able to see Luton from it :mrgreen:
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by rhyds »

avtur wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 18:26
Berk wrote:
BigBazz wrote: The official reasoning behind introducing the charge is to reduce congestion, particularly during the current expansion programme. The free drop off will be in the existing JetPark 1 site on Thorley Lane (accessed off the Terminal 2 roundabout).

It's left as an exercise for the reader as to whether you believe their reasoning or not, of course...
The Airport company Chief Operating Officer appeared om Radio Manchester this morning taking part in an hour long phone in, not surprisingly the parking issue was well covered. She said the fundamental reason for bringing the charge was to influence people into staying away from the terminal forecourt drop off zones and that in setting the price it had to be high enough to have that effect. If people just 'suck up and pay' the charge and continue to use the terminal forecourt drop off zones in the same number then she will be judged to have failed in her objective of reducing forecourt traffic. I wonder if that is written into her personal performance contract?

She did claim that rather then making money the revenue expected from people who do pay for terminal drop off to be used to provide the infrastructure for the free remote drop off facility, we'll have to wait and see if that turns out to be the case. Implementation of the new charge is planned for 1st June, which is a Friday. She did say that would not be a good day to make changes and that it would probably start the following week.
I dropped my folks off at Manchester airport on Tuesday (a lovely 4am job...) and while there were warnings on the website that the charges were coming in "mid June" there were no charges in place for us (though all the infrastructure was in place to implement it). To be honest, I'd probably still use the paid-for drop-off, because at 4am I doubt anyone would want to fuss about with shuttle buses and central drop-off points, especially when there were no signs for the "free" drop-off zone.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Andy J »

Manchester's Long Stay T1 car park is currently out of action because of building work too - we had to use the T1 Meet & Greet.

For efficient airports generally I can heartily recommend the Special Assistance provided at Luton & Geneva for me and my elderly mother, and everywhere else I'm sure. We had pretty much our own passport control and caught up with everybody else leaving the planes on foot. :D
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Bryn666 »

There's also a new roundabout at the foot of the T1 multi-storey ramp to allow access to T2 from T1, this avoids the rigmarole Jackal raised about driving through Enterprise Way from the soon to be A555.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by zapalniczka »

London City Airport by a mile. I can leave my house 1 hour before the plane is due to push back, get to the airport with 35 mins to go, get through security and still grab a coffee before boarding.

Coming the other way is fast and efficient too. I've gone from plane to DLR in under 2 mins.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Chris Bertram »

zapalniczka wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:54 London City Airport by a mile. I can leave my house 1 hour before the plane is due to push back, get to the airport with 35 mins to go, get through security and still grab a coffee before boarding.

Coming the other way is fast and efficient too. I've gone from plane to DLR in under 2 mins.
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.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Fenlander »

zapalniczka wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:54 London City Airport by a mile. I can leave my house 1 hour before the plane is due to push back, get to the airport with 35 mins to go, get through security and still grab a coffee before boarding.

Coming the other way is fast and efficient too. I've gone from plane to DLR in under 2 mins.
I've got friends who say the same, we even looked at using it from here for a trip even though there's plenty of other airports that are closer to us. Our trip would have spanned a season change and we'd be lacking the return flight - not a problem for our friends as they used train/underground but we'd be driving & train & underground which made it a bit too much of a faff for us.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Vierwielen »

booshank wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:34 I've only used two UK airports, Bristol and Heathrow. Bristol is horrible to get to but the airport itself is pretty efficient - you can be dropped off a very short walk from the terminal and the buses go from right outside. Heathrow is both horrible to get to and horrible when you've arrived as everything is so cramped together.

Cape Town International is pretty good though like Bristol not especially large. It's on what would probably be counted as a motorway spur (are spurs a specially British thing?). There's no rail connection though even though it's not far from a suburban commuter line, probably because it was built in the 1950s when it was probably considered a technology without much of a future.
I would not like to use a suburban commuter line from Cape Town Airport to the city centre. The area between the airport and the city centre is the Cape Flats - a crime-ridden area of slums and tin shanties. When my children were 12 and 13 respectively we tool them out of school for two weeks (either side of the Easter holiday) on the premise that a trip to South Africa would be an educational experience (as well as giving them a chance to see their grandparents). Judging by my daughter's eyes, the trip along the motorway to my sister's house at the base of Table Mountain was the equivalent of two weeks education.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Mark Hewitt »

Chris Bertram wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 13:01
zapalniczka wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:54 London City Airport by a mile. I can leave my house 1 hour before the plane is due to push back, get to the airport with 35 mins to go, get through security and still grab a coffee before boarding.

Coming the other way is fast and efficient too. I've gone from plane to DLR in under 2 mins.
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.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Chris Bertram »

Mark Hewitt wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 08:52
Chris Bertram wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 13:01
zapalniczka wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:54 London City Airport by a mile. I can leave my house 1 hour before the plane is due to push back, get to the airport with 35 mins to go, get through security and still grab a coffee before boarding.

Coming the other way is fast and efficient too. I've gone from plane to DLR in under 2 mins.
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.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by mikehindsonevans »

orudge wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 09:45
Alderpoint wrote:Heathrow is cr*p. No nearby reasonable long-stay parking. Car hire all a bus ride away. When you arrive back at 5am or 11pm (which I do regularly) the last thing you want to wait for is a bl**dy bus.
The one exception to that is if you're flying into Terminal 5, and you're hiring with Avis or Budget, who have car hire facilities right there at the terminal. So you can just get in, and drive straight off onto the M25.

Airports in the US tend to be pretty well connected, by road at least - most major airports have direct freeway links that deliver you straight to the terminal or the car rental return area.
I'll praise Heathrow and T5 in particular - the "pod" car-parking on the northwest corner is brilliant. Drive up to the (ANPR) barrier then find a parking space; walk across the car park and get into a four-person automated "pod" which takes you and your cases straight into Level 2 of the T5 carpark - with a lovely view of the airfield as you pass west of the northern runway threshold. Hop into the lift and walk into T5. Our holiday starts when we close the pod doors.

If we take a taxi to T5, the car drops us right outside the door into the check-in area.

When I become old and decrepit, the rail-air coach-link from Woking (or Reading) will do the job, to the door.

As airports become bigger, we may have to admit that driving to the door of a large airport without transferring to some form of shared public transport is a sad, yet memorable, thing of the past.

I would also raise a vote for my local airport, Southampton - where the airport authorities have just started charging for drop-offs. Fortunately, Southampton Airport Parkway station is literally 99 steps away, with lifts and two footbridges to get you from the (free drop-off) car park into the terminal. It's just a pity that the (1990s-vintage) terminal has become out-grown by passenger traffic, with inadequate bar/café facilities on the airside area.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by 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.

However, Edinburgh can't manage this. Every time, it takes a good, long 20 minutes before the bags start to appear. Yesterday, it was about 25 minutes with crowds of annoyed people waiting. Welcome home.
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Re: Efficient Airports

Post by Berk »

Not enough staff??
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