GATWICK

[yotty]

2 Runways?

Charlie, why waste all that money building 2 new runways when one new runway at LHR will achieve both satisfying demand in Middlesex and reducing the stretch at Gatwick?

[Charley B]

Wasn't it said that by the time that the runway is actually built at LHR it will be at full capacity again , so the one at LGW will be needed as well..probably neither will get one if certain MPs get their way which will be a shame.

[BAladdy]

BA S16 Shorthaul Schedule Changes

BA have made a number of changes to there planned S16 LGW Shorthaul Schedule. Details below:

Frequency Increases for Entire S16 Season:

Faro - Will increase from 15 to 16 x weekly
Heraklion - Will increase from 4 to 6 x weekly
Naples - Will increase from 17 to 18 x weekly
Pisa - Will increase from 7 to 9 x weekly
Seville - Will increase from 5 to 6 x weekly
Tenerife - Will increase from 5 to 6 x weekly
Turin - Will increase from 6 to 8 x weekly
Thessaloniki - Will increase from 4 to 5 x weekly
Venice - Will increase from 22 to 27 x weekly

Frequency Increases from Part S16 Season

Arrecife - 02APR-16APR & 17SEP-29OCT will increase from 2 to 3 x weekly
Bodrum - 13JUL-07SEP will increase from 2 to 3 x weekly
Cagliari - 10JUL-11SEP will increase from 3 to 5 x weekly
Faro - 11JUL-12SEP will increase from 16 to 17 x weekly
Naples - 15JUL-09SEP will increase from 18 to 19 x weekly
Salzburg - 13JUL-07SEP will increase from 6 to 7 x weekly
Tirana - 14JUL-09SEP will increase from 6 to 7 x weekly

Further changes are likely before the start of the S16 schedule

[vectisman]

I was really hoping BA would increase frequency to Paphos during the summer months. Both cabins are always heavily booked on the 5 weekly frequency. Already fares are high for a year in advance. I am beginning to look at alternative carriers even though the BA flight combined with car hire is my preferred option.


V.

[CabinCrewe]

Nice to see ongoing expansion, though looking back over the years they are certainly 'leisure' orientated now.

[wallp]

Originally Posted by CabinCrewe

Nice to see ongoing expansion, though looking back over the years they are certainly 'leisure' orientated now.

It's good to see that BA have carved out their niche at Gatwick and clearly it's working for them hence the expansion of routes described. Yes, it's more leisure oriented but there's no point in (with a few exceptions) duplicating LHR services.

A LGW with a growing BA operation of any sort is better than a LGW without BA. Hopefully they'll continue to evolve more leisure routes, both short and long haul. With their upcoming move to South Terminal, their ops should fit in there nicely

[wallp]

I flew from LGW Sourh Terminal today with EZY and I must credit the airport on one of the smoothest departure journeys I can recall, very fast and efficient. Security was a breeze, departure was smooth and efficiently. Big thumbs up to Gatwick 👍

[LadyL2013]

My journeys through LGW havd been smooth as silk for years. That's why STN was such a unpleasant shock last year.

[True Blue]

I have been through North terminal twice in the past 2 weeks, no issue at all. I think Lgw is now quite a good experience although, in keeping with all UK airports, a few more cleaners would be a good idea.

TB

[racedo]

Originally Posted by True Blue

I have been through North terminal twice in the past 2 weeks, no issue at all. I think Lgw is now quite a good experience although, in keeping with all UK airports, a few more cleaners would be a good idea.

TB

Gatwick airport now looks like an airport rather than a cheap railway station however its Railway station is shocking, crap ticket areas that are continually overcrowded with not enough working machines and platforms which are shocking.

[intortola]

Gatwick has definitely improved in recent years. Did flights from both north and south terminal when I was in UK in August. On leaving north terminal fast track security was very quick, think I was in the BA lounge only about 5 minutes after leaving check in.

[davidjohnson6]

racedo - to be fair, there are a lot of ticket machines at Gatwick's train station. Sometimes the queue is non-existent but at other times when the queue is non-trivial there are usually two people acting as queue marshals.

I've seen staff selling train tickets at North terminal while people wait for the shuttle to south terminal - good idea but they seemed slow and relatively ineffective - staff are maybe better deployed at ticket windows in the station where collecting payment and issuing tickets is faster than using a handheld machine. Perhaps some train ticket machines could also be installed at North terminal in the waiting area for the shuttle ?

A big help might be making train travel between London and Gatwick possible via Oyster, as well as the sale and topup of normal Oyster cards (not just the funny Visitor Oyster cards with an extra fee) possible at Gatwick. That will probably require the Dept of Transport to force things through against the will of Southern - the airport would probably be limited to lobbying in this regard.

Regarding the platforms, they can be a bit grim, particularly at night. Improving them will likely cost a lot of money - it seems impossible to do anything that comes close to railway track in the UK without having a near bottomless pit of money. Who should pay for these works ?

Do you have any ideas as to how the train station could be improved given existing space constraints and within a modest monetary budget ?

[True Blue]

Has Lgw not announced a major up-grade of the train station over the next 2 years?

TB

[FlyboyUK]

Yes it has

Gatwick Media Centre ? Transformation of Gatwick rail station secured

[ELondonPax]

The ticket buying chaos at the railway station is compounded by the absurdly complicated fare structure for fares to London.
Oyster sounds like a step forward but....
(1) While it has revolutionised travel in London, the oyster technology is near the limit of what it can do. There are only so many price buckets it can cope with and its now close to that limit. Note that tfl aren't pushing development of oyster now, they're pushing contactless bank cards, and already 20% of London journeys are now on contactless bank card.
(2) Although there is now only one train company operating ALL trains between Gatwick and London (legal name GoVia Thameslink Railway Ltd) it is persisting with separate brands (Thameslink Southern Express), and persisting with separate price points for the different brands. The legality of that is hotly disputed, but put that aside. In terms of oyster, oyster can only have a single fare for a straightforward "point A to point B" journey, so oyster can't be introduced until this ticket chaos is sorted out.

[PAXboy]

From the PR splurb:

... with work scheduled to start in 2017 and complete in 2020.

Only another five years of problems then.

[FlyboyUK]

Southern have a contactless card system, it's currently fairly basic as you can only put your season ticket on it and pay for singles on a touch-in, touch-out basis. They say plan is to go to completely ticketless eventually with Oyster integration. Probably still many years away.

[wallp]

I've flown to/from Gatwick in the past week with easyJet and I must give credit where its due - the whole airport experience was excellent. Travelling from Gatwick, parking and getting to South Terminal was easy, check in was a breeze as was security and coming back today, passport control was quick and bags were delivered within about 15 minutes. From the point of landing to leaving the car park to come home was around 45 minutes. Very efficient and a very pleasant experience.

[True Blue]

The message from Norwegian seems to be that Lgw will be a focus for large expansion. Are we due an announcement from Norwegian with bigger expansion plans than the odd route here and there on 3//4 days a week?

TB

[True Blue]

I see on Wiki, Lufthansa is showing as operating to Munich. I know Wiki can be very unreliable, any views if this could happen?

TB