London Gatwick Airport

Is Gatwick an airport or a down market shopping Mall? I flew from Gatwick to Vancouver in February and was not overly impressed but my recent experience has made me realise it's not worth the long journey from my home to use a second rate airport. On a recent flight to Alicante thru the South Terminal on a Friday afternoon the only good comment I can make is that security and passport control was effecient. After that it all goes downhill, you take an escalator down to walk thru a very large duty free shop to then emerge into another shopping centre filled with down market shops and fast food joints. Forget finding somewhere nice to eat or even sit down in comfort, I gave up waiting in the queue after 20 minutes for a quick sandwich and a coffee as we only had 1.5 hours before our flight. A representative from the airport asked if we need directions and then had no idea where a post box was located. The airport is full of groups of men and women on stag and hen do's which just shows how much this airport has been dumbed down, as we felt out of place not being in fancy dress. Our return flight arrived into the North Terminal, and I must say that the experience was not much better. up and down and around and around finally brought us to passport control, where as previous reviews have mentioned the e-readers seemed to confuse most people and lead to long queues. Having only hand baggage we walked thru baggage reclaim into, yes you've guessed it another duty free shop. So in conclusion, avoid Gatwick Airport unless you shop at a local street market and are able to walk for miles thru corridors. It is a shopping centre with runways attached and in future I will fly from my local airport and connect via Amsterdam or Paris.

Used South terminal outbound and back at fairly quiet times, weekdays very early morning and mid-afternoon. Passport queue on return ridiculous with only about a fifth of desks staffed. Travelator on long corridor from arrivals area to bus stop for long-term car park out of order - no sign to say sorry, just cordoned off. It just doesn't feel like a potential major international hub, more like a regional airport struggling to cope. Heathrow has to get the new runway, surely?

Avoid if you can as it is truly horrible airport to arrive at for returning residences or new visitors to the UK. Departure is ok with new security in place. Disabled assistance through departures is ok but a bit over the top and patronizing. Arrival is an absolute nightmare even for the able. I require disabled assistance and being my easiest accessible airport it is my airport of "choice". However every time I have used it in recent years is has been a problematic and stressful experience. Each time the airport manage to exceed their diminishing level of service to point on my last visits it was truly non existent. This airport clearly has a management issue. With lack of adequate staffing in key areas and a contemptuous attitude to passengers using it.

Long queues in the e-passport immigration lines, machines seemed to be faulty. Baggage delivery was slow. Arrivals area very crowded and the shuttle train to South Terminal very busy as well. Signposting to the Gatwick express good, escalators to the platforms good. Train expensive and old, they really need new rolling stock on this service. Train arrived on time at London Victoria.

London Gatwick is an airport of 2 halves. North Terminal is relatively pleasant for a business departure and a selection of lounges, mixture of shops etc. The South Terminal, judging from last week, is the opposite. Very crowded, full of fast food outlets (catering for the majority of travellers in this terminal), only 1 lounge (full - so not admitted), very poor selection of shops. Queuing on the tarmac to board the plane simply not good enough for an airport that wants another runway. If your flight departs from North Terminal, no problems - if the South Terminal, avoid like the plague.

Very poor airport. Landed here on an AL flight from Dublin. Upon landing, we exited the airbridge and then had to go to the tarmac to board buses to go to the terminal. We were then corralled into a tiny space and walked up what seemed to be a fire exit stair case to get to the arrivals hall. Gatwick Express is also well below par. Train arrives in from Brighton so by the time it gets to Gatwick it is jammed-there was barely standing room on the train and it took nearly 45 mins to get to London. Train itself is old, dirty and dated. Compared to Heathrow/Heathrow Express, this is in the dark ages. Departure/Security is poor. There is no priority lane, or at least none that is open. Boarding is similar in so far as you are called to 'Board' nearly an hour in advance and then sit in a dingy area waiting for the aircraft to arrive. I chose to fly to here as it was cheaper than going to Heathrow but, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Avoid if possible and go to LHR or LCY.

London Gatwick is one of my least favourite airports in the western world. In particular, signage varies from unhelpful to baffling, both in the terminal buildings and on the access roads. Good luck with it.

I live near this airport and used to find it fairly decent - but since its new owners took it over customer service has deteriorated hugely. What little management there is seems focussed totally on lobbying for a new runway (which they don't deserve) and terminal switches and no effort is put into running normal ops. My latest experience demonstrated this in spades. Transfering from a Jersey arrival to a departure to Genoa - both BA flights. It should have been easy but that was without reckoning on Transfer security - the least resourced and most chaotic part of the airport (quite an accolade given Gatwick as a whole right now). We only just made the flight and then only because we had wheelchair assistance. Without it and its attendent queue jumping we would have missed our flight. This is not a once only - indeed staff at Gatwick advised that it is often better to go into arrivals and back in through departures Better still - don't use Gatwick for transfers. And, oh yes, BA lost our luggage.

I hate Gatwick airport, the security is prone to long delays. The security staff are positively rude. The last time I travelled through there was a problem with the baggage system. I totally understand that problems occur, and that equipment breaks down, but we waited for nearly 2 hours for our bags in the baggage hall. Several passengers had young children with them and it was late at night. Nobody came down from customer support, it was not possible to contact anyone, the phone in the baggage hall simply was not answered by anyone. It was not possible to leave the baggage hall as there is no re-entry, so we just had to wait. There was a vending machine, but I had no sterling and I was dying with a thirst after the time we were waiting. Somebody should have come down with water, and to at least explain the problem to us. The only way to make contact with the airport management was by posting on Twitter, they had time to respond with nonsense answers, instead of just coming down to speak to us. Disgraceful - I now travel through Heathrow even though it is much longer to my final destination.

Travelling on one of the 06:00 glut of departures from London Gatwick North Terminal - was not looking forward to security but it was very well organised, through in about 10 minutes. Most impressed. Picked up pre-ordered tablet computer at good saving over price outside.