Fly to Heathrow or Gatwick

penexpers

Hey,

I have to go to London in July. I'm fairly flexible about what airport I can fly into. My previous experiences of Heathrow are multiple delays of 30-45 minutes but I have little experience of Gatwick. Extraordinary circumstances aside, which airport is better for flying into in terms of being on time? I'll be flying over on Wednesday afternoon and back on Monday evening with Aer Lingus if that makes any difference.

Thanks.

bladeruner

July is peak summer hols season so expect delays at every airport.
I would reckon that Gatwick would be the better of the two for shorter delays

FlutterinBantam

penexpers wrote: »

Hey,

I have to go to London in July. I'm fairly flexible about what airport I can fly into. My previous experiences of Heathrow are multiple delays of 30-45 minutes but I have little experience of Gatwick. Extraordinary circumstances aside, which airport is better for flying into in terms of being on time? I'll be flying over on Wednesday afternoon and back on Monday evening with Aer Lingus if that makes any difference.

Thanks.

Delays of 30-45 mins:eek:

Man, you must live one busy life if that is an issue in terms of air travel.

Terrontress

Best airport of the lot is London City. Straight in to the centre of town, fantastic views of the city, minimal wait for luggage, check in open later than normal airports.

Fratton Fred

Never used it, but by all accounts City airport is the way to go, you will struggle to find return flights for less than €140 though.

I prefer Heathrow to Gatwick (too many shell suit wearing holiday makers for my liking at gatwick).

When you say delays, are you talking taking off or landing, because a 30 minute delay in taking off usually means you arrive 10 minutes late.

Terrontress

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Never used it, but by all accounts City airport is the way to go, you will struggle to find return flights for less than €140 though.

I prefer Heathrow to Gatwick (too many shell suit wearing holiday makers for my liking at gatwick).

When you say delays, are you talking taking off or landing, because a 30 minute delay in taking off usually means you arrive 10 minutes late.

If you factor in the cost of a bag, Gatwick Express ticket, drink on board the plane, credit card fee then City is not that expensive. And it's worth the extra money for the convenience.

OPENROAD

Terrontress wrote: »

. And it's worth the extra money for the convenience.

Depends where you are staying, City for me would involve a couple of changes while Heathrow is a direct tube link 38 mins.


Always factor in where you are staying, although all airports have excellent transport links when you have luggage etc always worth looing for the most convenoent airport to where you are staying.

OPENROAD

Terrontress wrote: »

fantastic views of the city, .

+1 though you also get great views going into Heathrow taking in the city knightsbridge/Kensington etc..

alpha2zulu

And since BA moved out of T1 at Heathrow, its now not actually that bad an experience,its not the Ritz, but what Airport is, and your onward travel options are much better too with tube, bus, heathrow express,etc

My last few times passing through Gatwick South in the summer involved 20minute queues through security,although I guess with the slowdown this factor might not be as prevalent this summer, however in comparison with Luton/Stansted, Gatwick is quite a well run operation on the whole.

Fratton Fred

T1 is going to get a lot busier soon when they move the rest of the star alliance in there and start pulling down T2, mind you, you fly through security at the moment and it is only at half capacity.

I might give city airport a try, I fancy flying on one of cityjet's planes, they look cool!!

OPENROAD

Fratton Fred wrote: »

T1 is going to get a lot busier soon when they move the rest of the star alliance in there and start pulling down T2, mind you, you fly through security at the moment and it is only at half capacity.

I might give city airport a try, I fancy flying on one of cityjet's planes, they look cool!!

In the short term it will get busy but is the eventual plan when Terminal East is built T1 as such will be phased out and we will have one big terminal i.e. Terminal East.

Fratton Fred

OPENROAD wrote: »

In the short term it will get busy but is the eventual plan when Terminal East is built T1 as such will be phased out and we will have one big terminal i.e. Terminal East.

I can't wait to be honest, although my usual view of T1 is gazing out of the window whilst sipping a large G&T in the BMI lounge :cool:

Now that's what flying is about

Tenger

penexpers wrote: »

Extraordinary circumstances aside, which airport is better for flying into in terms of being on time? I'll be flying over on Wednesday afternoon and back on Monday evening with Aer Lingus if that makes any difference.

I would say LGW, LHR has a greater chance of delays however it does offer more flights per day. In general the LHR flights are busier then the LGW so better chance of getting a nice price on the fare. Although to be honest all my LHR in the last 3 weeks (at least 15 in or out) were within 10 mins or early!

I say go with the best price.