Not a negative comment, just my opinion of an airport that appears to have not kept up with others around the UK
Sorry VIKING9 but this specific criticism of LTN just doesn't stack up. Please see the quote below referring to NEMA:
Flew from EMA Monday morning for a change. What a mistake. Security lines stretching back to the cash machines at just after 06:00 (compare to about 20 people in the line at BHX the week before when I flew out at a similar time), which meant that they had to call forward passengers for some flights, making the wait in the queue for those of us who were considerate and checked in within a reasonable time even longer. Two x-ray machines not being used - wake up NEMA, its your busiest time of day so use ALL of the facilities and process the passengers reasonably quickly.
Some friends who flew back into Gatwick at the beginning of December had to wait 45 minutes for their bags to appear in the North Terminal. The conveyor belt was so overloaded with luggage that some it it apparently fell off when it moved onto the carousels.
Agreed this is probably down to the handling agents but it still gives bad service and a poor impression of the airport.
Whilst it's true that the security queues are over-long at LTN, once the terminal re-vamp has been completed I think you'll find that passenger processing will improve there although in today's security climate, it'll never be like it was pre-9/11.
Bussing will also cease as there will be the first of two new piers with boarding gates serving six stands - but many times at Heathrow I've arrived on a domsetic flight and having been parked on an 'international' stand, have also been loaded onto a bus that's taken us to an arrival gate elsewhere, after which I've been faced with a 10 minute walk to enter the terminal proper.
Stansted doesn't fair that much better at 'peak' times.
Give it another go after June and see if things at LTN haven't improved somewhat!
