I arrived at the airport, via Parkway station, on Sunday afternoon for a night stop at the Ibis prior to an early flight this morning. Having read previous postings on this thread, and seen the queue of traffic as the train pulled in to the station, I decided to walk to the hotel (and I certainly got to the top of the hill quicker than anyone in a vehicle!)
I agree that the scenes of hundreds of people bailing out of buses, taxis and cars to walk, or in many cases, run up the hill and through the tunnel does the airport no credit at all. There must be a large number of people missing flights, and an even bigger number who have been caused major stress because they thought they would arrive too late to fly. I saw a very distressed elderly couple, and many families with small children who were amongst those jogging up the hill.
I'm aware that certain phases of the redevelopment have been delayed, but to subject passengers to this sort of chaos in the peak summer season in what is likely to be the airport's busiest ever year is frankly moronic. Many of the people caught up in this mess will vow never to use the airport again, or tell horror stories about their experience to friends and family.
Quite a few of the regulars on this list predicted traffic gridlock, so why couldn't the airport management or those managing the redevelopment project have foreseen it?
The next month will likely see even higher passenger numbers, so goodness knows how the airport will cope unless it takes immediate and decisive steps to alleviate the current shambles.