Gatwick: Arriving Pax. clearance times

[Phalconphixer]

OK I know its a bit like asking how long is a piece of string but...

My Monarch flight arrives LGW South from AGP at 1520 Friday. Its been years since I last used Gatwick and on that occasion the clearance time was horrendous.

I hold a British Passport and will need to retrieve hold baggage from the carousels.

My onward rail travel from Gatwick is at 16.10... based on other users current experiences am I likely to make it?

Thanks.

[mixture]

Yes, Gatwick is ghastly .... made the mistake of flying back there recently... I vowed never, ever to fly into Gatwick again !

It ... took... forever to get out of that dump of a place.

Immigration was utter chaos and took well over 20 minutes to get through the epassport queue, the manual queue was even slower.

Their overly smug adverts should be re-written to read Gatwick, Obviously Not !

[PAXboy]

If you make the connection it will be by the skin of your teeth - unless you have hand luggage only. On an average day - but on a Friday afternoon? Check what happens to your train ticket if you want to catch a later train.

On the other hand - it could all go smoothly. That's the problem with modern life - you cannot rely on aspect of infrastructure any more. it will be what it will be.

[Sygyzy]

I had the misfortune to arrive at the 'Border control' hall at 0115 on a Saturday night/Sunday morning last month. I had enough time to guestimate that there were ~500 people in front of me in the (EU) passport queue.

I was kerbside around 0300, fortunately without a train to catch. As Paxboy says - this is modern life. I'm not prepared to put money on your catching your train connection.:(

[Phalconphixer]

Thanks guys, pretty much what I expected! Ah well theres always later trains...

[AeroSpark]

Although on the flip side the guy I picked up thursday night, albeit from the North terminal, was in my car 45 mins after landing.

[Level bust]

Last time I landed at Gatwick, from touchdown to getting in the queue for the hotel shuttle bus was just under an hour.

I guess it's pot luck, if everything works well, baggage arrives in good time, all the immigration desks are open and all the passport readers are working its a breeze.

Which to be fair has always been the case the last few times.

[SpringHeeledJack]

I managed against all logic, to go from my seat in the aircraft to central London in 37 minutes a month ago. Handbaggage and pure serendipity played the larger role in this luck. Most other times the hall is crowded to get to immigration and perhaps 'we' all like to travel at the same approximate times which causes slowness. Have the Border Agency been a bit short staffed lately, as I have a vague recollection of many desks being unmanned ?

[mixture]

perhaps 'we' all like to travel at the same approximate times which causes slowness.

Maybe I've just had a vast row of good luck, but I've never had problems at LHR T5 when arriving at "peak" times.

[Heathrow Harry]

30 minutes would be pushing it from a domestic flight with hand baggage only - not a hope with checked luggage - IF they are on time 5-10 minutes to get off the plane, 5 minute walk to Immigration minimum, 5 minutes there, walk to baggage hall - wait ?15 minutes minimum, through customs 5 - 10 minutes to train platform...........

I'd be worried about any connection less than an hour TBH

[Ancient Observer]

Came in to lgw on Wed from Turkey. No queues for anything anywhere, e-passport worked first time, and they had the bags on the carousel as we arrived at it.
On another day, it can take over an hour.
Pot luck??

[ExXB]

Realise question was posed for UK and EU nationals but offer a comment on the "All Passports" immigration queue at the North Terminal.

If you can avoid Gatwick I would. I have wasted hours queueing there. Of the two desks available for non-EU only one is normally staffed. In addition to us they are also responsible for the PRMs coming in on the electric buggies. Of course they automatically go to the head of the queue. The buggy driver collects the passports from his passenger, jumps the queue, gives docs to agent who looks at them, gets up and walks to the buggy and checks pax against photos. If any are non-EU the agent then goes back to their desk, stamps the passports and returns to the buggy. This process couldnt have been done worse.

No, Gatwick doesnt score any points here.

[Riccal]

Surprising reading the majority of the above posts - I have been picking up pasengers - 6/7 a week - for the last 6 months from both North and South at LGW and a good 90% of my passengers have been in the car in the car park within 40 minutes of landing - quicker if hand luggage only.

T5 however seems to be a bit of a lottery - upto 1 hour for passengers with checked luggage though I have had 20 minutes. No logic to the time of day either.

[PAXboy]

The post from Riccal confirms that it is a lottery. With large UK airports, you HAVE to presume the worst at all times and plan for that. You cannot rely on previous experience - or anything. :hmm:

[Level bust]

Unfortunately, and a lot of people don't seem to realise this, but the lack of immigration desks open has nothing to do with the Airport owners, it is good old HMG.

Luton used to get a lot of bad press because 7 or 8 flights arrived at once but only 2 desks were open.

At least with the introduction of passport readers the problem is not quite so bad.

[Phalconphixer]

Aircraft landed 1525 and was i was drinking a latte in the arrivals hall at 1550. A big thumbs up to all! :D

[SpringHeeledJack]

Good for you mr fixer! Did you make your train out of interest ?

[spannersatcx]

train was probably delayed! :E

[PAXboy]

Many moons ago, when in a cab 'twixt The City and the City Airport, we were in heavy traffic.

My American boss, who had travelled the globe extensively, was calm, saying: "Since there is no great urgency to our trip and another flight to the same destination (CDG) soon after - we will catch the flight. If our timing was critical and no other flight available - we would miss it."

We got the flight and I adopted that philosophy!

[Heathrow Harry]

I've always said to my Lords & Masters that if they think I MUST be in destination X at a set time and date I will happily fly out 2 days before and sit in a hotel - just to make sure

Amazing how few REALLY important meetings there are in that case................ ;);)