London Airports

Bottle_of_Smoke

Anyone know which is best Airport to go to as reguards being close to London city centre.

I'm assuming "London City Airport" but the flights are a bit pricey, anyone know the best after that?

Tchocky

London City Airport

finbarrk

There isnt much difference between the rest of them, depends where exactly you are going.

H2G2

If you are going on business (ie. someone else I paying) or you can afford it, then City is best. It has to be one of the world’s easiest airports to get around. After that (for travel time) I would order them as Heathrow; Gatwick; Stansted. Forget Luton… too far away.

BuffyBot

It really depends on where abouts in London you're going. They all have relative strenghts/weaknesses

Ruu_Old

My sister lives in around Essex and we usually fly to city airport but it is more expensive. She uses Gatwick Flyer to get from Stansted to her place, they service other areas too. Hope that helps.

jackbhoy

Ruu wrote:

My sister lives in around Essex and we usually fly to city airport but it is more expensive. She uses Gatwick Flyer to get from Stansted to her place, they service other areas too. Hope that helps.

Heathrow express will get you to centre in 15mins but very expensive, tube will do same in about 50 mins (if I remember correctly)

TJJP

Tchocky wrote:

London City Airport

Second that, London City is the best option if you get the right fare. After a weekend away you can have a Sunday avvo pint in London fields and get a £15 taxi just in time for the 5.45 flight home.

John R

H2G2 wrote:

If you are going on business (ie. someone else I paying) or you can afford it, then City is best. It has to be one of the world’s easiest airports to get around. After that (for travel time) I would order them as Heathrow; Gatwick; Stansted. Forget Luton… too far away.

There isn't much difference between Stansted and Luton for travel times. The train from Luton is much faster but you have to get a shuttle bus from the Airport to the train station.

Really though as Buffybot said it all depends on where in central London you want to go, the amount of time it takes to get to the terminus point from the Airport can be less than the time it takes to get from there to your destination.

Lisapeep

I have travelled through both Stansted and Heathrow and if I was doing it again I would fly through Heathrow. It's 15 minutes from Heathrow airport to Paddington station and there is loads of accommodation within a 5 minute walk of Paddington Station. Stansted is an hour away from Liverpool St tube station on the Stansted express train.

The only negative thing about Heathrow is that, as a busy airport, they stack incoming flights so you may have to circle for a while before you can land. This adds on time!

lizzyd66

Where exactly are you staying in London?

Remember with Stansted you can get off at Tottenham Hale (30 mins from Stansted) which is on the Victoria Line - very quick then into the centre of London. Buy your self an Oyster card (£3 deposit) and load some money on at the ticket machines - much cheaper than buying single tickets - not too sure about how it compares to day tickets.

I really dislike the Ireland terminal at Heathrow - find it really crowded and hot even when its not too warm outside. That said recently Aer Lingus has had really cheap fares so you have to weigh everything up.

Luton isn't too bad either - you can get the Thames link which goes through london or a train to Kings X.

Let us know where you are staying and then we could advise as to the best place to fly too.

gandalf

Last few times I've flown into London City, if you book on the Air France website you normally get a cheaper price than the City Jet site. Also you have the DLR into the tube system which is regular and excellent value for money. I'm hoping to get over to London again this year and will be using London City again.

(I bloody hate Heathrow, its a horrible airport imho)

dogmatix

Everyone's talking about Heathrow, Stansted and the city airport - poor old gatwick gets not a mention. And it is only a 30 minute train journey from victoria station. The gatwick airport railway station is attached to the north terminal building and there is a fast and quick tram connecting the north and south terminals. BA flys to the north terminal from dublin. Aer lingus will probably do so as well when they start to fly into Gatwick - i think ryanair use the south terminal (just like ryanair to make it as difficult as possible for passengers).

See https://www.gatwickexpress.com

jdivision

Cos a return on the Gatwick express is often more expensive than the return flight before taxes. I fly to Heathrow and get a one day ticket there and take the underground.

dirtydress

I agree with dogmatix, Gatwick is by far the easiest airport to fly into and jdivision, you dont HAVE to get the Gatwick express into the city from there. Soutwest trains also operate regular trains through the station. I usually travel to Clapham Junction which takes about 20mins and from there you can get anywhere. I used to go to Heathrow but the comfort of soutwest trains and the quicker journey has completely converted me!

jahalpin

When I fly to London I always fly into Heathrow. It has the best and most reliable public transport of all the London airports, it is also the cheapest in terms in public transport, excluding Heathrow Express, as a one day off-peak all zones travelcard is only £6.40 and this works on all buses, trains and trams with the London Zonal area (exc. Heathrow Expesss\Heathrow Connect)

I normally get the 285 bus to Feltham station and get the fast train to London Waterloo (Waterloo is only 3 stops from Leceister Square or Picadilly Circus on the underground) , I find this far quicker and more comfortable than the Picadilly Line.

If you are going to London for shopping, Kingston is fairly close to Heathrow and has a very good shopping area (the 285 goes to Kingston from Heathrow), you can also get to Twickenham very easily from Heathrow.

The train from Feltham always serves Clapham Junction so you could have a choice of a lot of destinations from there eg Croydon, Brighton etc.

watna

I would avoid Stansted like the plague, it's hell on earth. I flew back from there. We were there 2 and a half hours before our flight left and we only just made the flight, the queues were so long. Some people even didn't make it, despite being there early enough. For this reason I don't fly Ryanair or to Stansted any more. if you can fly to Heathrow, you can get the tube for cheap enough or the Heathrow express (€43 return) which gets you to King's Cross in 15 minutes.

BuffyBot

Hathrow Express goes to Paddington for any confused folk who may read this in the future.

jjbrien

dogmatix wrote:

Everyone's talking about Heathrow, Stansted and the city airport - poor old gatwick gets not a mention. And it is only a 30 minute train journey from victoria station. The gatwick airport railway station is attached to the north terminal building and there is a fast and quick tram connecting the north and south terminals. BA flys to the north terminal from dublin. Aer lingus will probably do so as well when they start to fly into Gatwick - i think ryanair use the south terminal (just like ryanair to make it as difficult as possible for passengers).

See https://www.gatwickexpress.com

Actually the train staion is in the bigger south terminal. But Gatwick is much better to fly into and navigate around compiared to Stansted or Heathrow. Heatherow is nearer by I find the walk down to the wormhole like Irish gates terrible. I much perfer Gatwick the strain is quick and cheap as well to Gatwick.

lady_j

I've flown into heathrow, gatwick, stanstead and city. City is closest but flights are generally more expensive. After that I would say heathrow, lots of public transport pretty basic to goto through as theres basically one terminal for ireland and the tube is connected. Gatwick is grand but you have to factor cost of train to london. Stanstead I would avoid like the plague, I would seriously pay anything not to fly into that airport!

r3nu4l

watna wrote:

I would avoid Stansted like the plague, it's hell on earth. I flew back from there. We were there 2 and a half hours before our flight left and we only just made the flight...

I fly to and from Ireland regularly and to be honest I think you just had a bad experience. When security is very tight at Stansted it's a pain in the ass and very, very slow but I've never missed a flight or even been close to missing it. I usually arrive 2 hours before my flight and usually have at least an hour to wait at the boarding gate. Maybe I'm just lucky but that's been my experience on my 20 Stansted-Dublin return flights in the last 2 and a half years...

Also, someoen said that the Stansted express takes 1 hr to Liverpool street. It normally takes only 45 mins and as lizzyd66 said, you can get off at Tottenham Hale if you want (30 mins away).

As for Gatwick, I like it, nice and easy but I found security to be as slow as Stansted three weeks ago when I was flying out to Barbados...

There is a lot of debate about the contracts to run the London airports over in the UK at the moment. BAA run Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, the 3 busiest airports in the country and the Government are looking at awarding at least one of the airport contracts to someone else to improve competition and speed up security checks etc.

John R

r3nu4l wrote:

There is a lot of debate about the contracts to run the London airports over in the UK at the moment. BAA run Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, the 3 busiest airports in the country and the Government are looking at awarding at least one of the airport contracts to someone else to improve competition and speed up security checks etc.

BAA own those airports so the government are in no position to award contracts to anyone.

r3nu4l

John R wrote:

BAA own those airports so the government are in no position to award contracts to anyone.

The idea is that the Government are being advised to setup an agency similar to the US TSA so that BAA will be in no position to run security at their airports...of course knowing the British Government, this would be contracted out to private companies :rolleyes: As I say it's in debate and the Government will possibly put themselves (by passing more terror laws :rolleyes:) in a position to do so...

Kalashnikov_Kid

I can vouch for Gatwick - train station is beside terminal 2 for Ryanair, South West Trains run about 4 trains an hour into Clapham Junction and city centre so theres no reason for taking the Gatwick Express. But theres a few things to watch out for - lengthy security queues, so go straight to security after checking in, the facilities are better there anyway. Also Ryanair have an awful habit of delaying the announcement of the gate number so watch the screens like a hawk. Thinking of trying BA here next time, youre screwed with Ryanair whenever something goes wrong (in this case, the flooding delays)

botvot

Hi
Just came back from a London weekend trip. Flew with BMI into Heathrow, easiest entry ever, especially the Irish arrivals terminal. Just 5 minutes max to the underground.

Returned with Ryanair from Luton, AAARRRRGGGHH!!!! They are doing road works on the M1 highway, and there was a crash and everything else went wrong as well, eg. demonstrations in the city centre (we took a bus from Victoria to Luton). We headed out a good 3 hours before our flight, and only had 2 (yes, 2) minutes before check-in closed....and you know how strict Ryanair is with timeliness, before they slap you with a higer rate for the next flight. There were many people on that bus to Luton who missed their flights.

The airport itself isn't half bad, just the road leading to it a total nightmare.

Jimoslimos

I travel London-Dublin quite a bit and from experience can say all have their pros and cons. As somebody said it does depend a lot on where you will be staying.

Gatwick is a good choice if you are based in South or south east london, there's a great choice of trains into London bridge and Victoria stations, but the amount of flights to choose from is slightly less than Heathrow or Stansted so you might need to be flexible with travelling dates and times.

Stansted (with ryanair) can often be the cheapest but you have to factor in the cost of the train - although getting a coach is also a good cheaper option.

Heathrow: If you are staying in West london then this is probably the best bet, also very handy if you are staying anywhere on the Piccadilly line. It is worth noting that the tube to/from Heathrow can be very busy at times