Quote: "I traveled through LGW's North Terminal last Saturday afternoon. There was one queue for departures and it took 20 mins to get to the other side. I thought it was only meant to take a few minutes nowadays (or so they keep saying)! Of course everybody had to get their boarding passes out for a second time, so I suppose that's going to take a while.
It must be a nightmare when it's actually busy!!"
Had similar, but boarding pass looked at three times. Why does the chap by the conveyor belt need to see it? Surely he/she has enough to do reminding people to remove their coats, take their laptops out, etc., etc..
Could that be why a 5-minute procedure takes over 20?
Quote: "I have recently seen a map showing the location of the 'planned' second runway at Gatwick, south of the existing one. In 1969 I worked for BUA and saw a brochure that had been given to all employees on the occasion of the move to Gatwick from Croydon. This brochure included a map of the airport as it was then and also had a proposed additional runway. If my memory is correct, this had one end roughly at the current western (08) end running in a north-easterly direction, towards Horley.
Has anyone a copy of this or confirm what I saw was at that time correct? Obviously such a runway could not be constructed now, well I suppose it could, goodbye North Terminal, Hotels and some of Horley.
Wasn't the original plan for the 2nd rwy to be north of the current one?
Couldn't happen now, of course, because of LGW-North.
Quote: "Arrived as a domestic at LGW South Pier 1 yesterday. Slight wait for jetbridge, then off plane to be held en masse at gate entrance waiting for someone to come and man the photo id scan and issue the barcode on a piece of paper to each of us. Then around 100 of us walking up the half corridor to the domestic arrivals hall against the flow of outbound pax and navigating around the queue boarding at Gate 1. Generally LGW is hugely improved but the domestic arrivals set up is not exactly slick. Presume something better is in the offing with the redevelopment of Pier 1 given the not insignificant amount of domestic traffic? It's not badly managed, it just seems a bit 'clunky'."
Yes, have had that experience too, it is not good enough!
As it is a dedicated domestic pier (as at LHR-1) do the pax need to be segregated? Would a photo for departing pax (as at LHR-1) not be sufficient? The domestic pier is on two levels, could not arriving and departing pax be segregated by level if it is in fact necessary?
What sort of impression does it give of the UK's second biggest airport?