Luton Airport

Departures ok, arrivals always a massive wait, not enough staff in customs, and only one desk for non-EU passports. Almost an hour spent each time waiting for the single desk to slowly process non-EU passports. Unacceptable, and forced me to miss buses on two occasions.

Absolute dump of an airport. Poor in virtually every aspect. A constant building site both in terms of airport buildings and car parks. Worst of all the most scandalous rip off short term parking costs imaginable. My absolute last resort choice in the UK.

The enthusiasm of security screening is ridiculous. I was forced to bin EUR 100 worth of toiletries because my small see-through plastic bag was too big. Free wifi was also a disaster. Only five minutes on the free network before being kicked off. Frankie and Johnney bar was very good.

An early morning arrival which was early, and it would appear that Wizz Air have changed the handling agents, and there was no wait for steps etc. A short walk to Passport control which was well staffed and had all the egates open as well. It looked if there has been a refurb and there is a refurb still on going at the airport. The passport control process was painless and now I am used to the egates simple a short walk to baggage reclaim and the flights bags were appearing on the belt. Time from plane to door 30 minutes. There were plenty of signs directing people towards pick up points, public transport outside the terminal. Inside from the gate to exiting again plenty of signs.

We were flying Luton to Kiev Zhulyany with Wizz Air. The travelling to the airport was much better than anticipated due to previous experience. We dropped our bags (not before paying £30 for oversized hand luggage) and went to security. I must say, what chaos. All the staff are running around not knowing which bag the X-ray indicated. Also the machine kept stopping for minutes at a time. Then we proceeded through the construction site and got to the departure lounge. No seating space and food heavily overpriced. When we were boarding, there was only one agent to deal with passengers and oversized hand luggage. Overall, an unpleasant experience that I would think twice about flying through.

Have been using Luton airport for 15 years - never again. Overcrowded, signs bad, access not up to the job. Security check on outward journey was good, restaurants were so overcrowded and staff over stressed. Return was again a disaster, flight two hours 30 mins late, then had to wait one hour 15 mins for baggage, excuse given was that the aircraft was not expected. This is second time I have had this delay for baggage in two years, we were a family with seventy year olds and children, one being four. Someone needs to sort baggage area out, could have carried myself quicker. Exit was terrible, small, passengers trying to get in and out outside like a roadworks.

When we arrived for our flight we were dropped by the taxi driver somewhere in a filthy car park a long distance from the terminal gate. We where told that we would have to carry our luggage to the terminal ourselves. There were no trolleys of course and we struggled uphill on an uneven concrete path from this shambolic car park and arrived gasping for air. When boarding the plane we were not connected to a gangway or a sleeve and we had to carry our hand luggage several flights of stairs down and then climb up again from the tarmac into the aircraft. On return, it was evening and heavily raining when we landed. Again we had to climb out of the aircraft in the dark and heavy rain and find our way from the tarmac into the terminal and then climb all the way up again. Once out we had to run in the heavy rain and dark and carry our luggage with no trolleys of course back to the messy car park. This is by far the most awful airport I have had the misfortune to use. We are in our 70’s. It is obvious that older passengers, disabled, or anybody who is not perfectly fit and fully able to carry weights and walk uphill is not welcome.

Luton is my 'local' and, because of the train connection and Easyjet, it is ideal. The "charge for everything" attitude can be avoided by arriving by train, re-using liquids bags from other airports that are no so mean-minded etc. However, I am at an age where I realise that, if I were not fully mobile with reasonable eyesight and hearing, I would struggle with the place. Last week I flew to (and back from) Glasgow. The display board showed something like "departure gate will be shown in 1 minute" for 12 minutes. Then the sign changed to read "Go to Gate", but with no gate number. Fortunately a tannoy announcement said we should go to Gate 16. We did. Sure enough, the gate was deserted. We asked a passing member of staff who kindly used his walkie-talkie and found out that the correct gate is No 6. I had to call out the correct gate number to the mass of people coming down the stairs to Gate 16, because nobody official was going to do so. All the way to Gate 6 we passed departure boards that still showed, "Go to Gate", but with no gate number. I'm prepared to bet that anyone without a reasonable command of English would have missed the flight. No explanations, no apologies. This is yet another example of how little the management at Luton Airport actually cares about their 'customers'.

What an utter shambles Luton airport is now. Dirty, tatty, and barely any seats left due to the over-development of shops. We also queued for ages crammed standing room only in a cramped and dingy departure gate, sorry, shed. I cannot believe this is a so called London airport in 2015. Pathetic. If I could give this dump a minus score I would.

When departing at the end of September we were very pleased. Speedy transfer from the car park to terminal, short check in queue (11am) EasyJet. We pressed happy face buttons on 3 separate machines. Arriving was quite a different story. 15 mins for steps to arrive at the aircraft. ("It's a busy time"). Quick through passport control (electronic gates). Baggage carousel didn't start turning for another 15 minutes. ("It's a busy time"). Nowhere to buy a drink or any food. Long wait for bus from terminal to car park - longer than advertised. No happy/sad face buttons to press anywhere. Surely the airport knows it is going to be a busy time and should have he appropriate staffing levels to cope. Doubt we will use Luton again.