Luton Airport

For the last 18 months I have travelled from Luton Airport simply because of the locality and times of flights. If not for these reasons, I would never fly from here again. Starting from the journey by road into the airport. You have 4 or 5 lanes of traffic, filtering into 1 lane. At 05.00 it took me 30 mins most Monday mornings to get to the Priority Parking area. Warning: Make sure you leave ample time when travelling to the airport Regarding parking, whether it be drop off £2.50 for 15 mins, Priority Parking (varies depending on time of year from £50 to £80 per week). All others are highly priced compared to other airports. Even Heathrow and Gatwick do not charge for drop off/pick up. Once in the airport the staff in all areas, are unhelpful, never see a smile, and quite abrupt when you ask them a question. This also includes Border Security staff. Queuing in Security is the norm, so each week I chose Fast Track however it seemed slower than others, and depending when you chose this, even though you purchase a ticket for Fast Track you go through and then have to join another queue as the fast track one is closed. The shopping experience is just that - an experience. A total mess of a handful of shops, expensive drinks/food areas so head down to gates 1-4 where you have Bar 10. Don't expect it always to be open, very hit and miss. Most days you cannot pay by card as the machine never works, and on random occasions the receipt machine did not work. Wifi - In this day and age, you would think Wifi would be the norm, but not here - Yes you get free Wifi but only 30 mins worth - use it wisely and if you have a flight delay, which is quite possible, get ready to pay for more Queuing systems at gates 1-4 and 15/16. I can only comment on these, but sure others are the same. 15/16 - If two flights are departing at the same time be ready for war on the stairs - make sure you are in the correct queue as one may be 15 and the other 16 - no one tells you. When you actually get to Gate 15, as Priority you are semi-ok, but others, you just have to go through the maze. Gates 1-4. 1 & 2 are OK, but 3 & 4, and also if others at 5 and 6 well again make sure you are in the correct queue - They all seem to merge and the staff are totally unhelpful. You ask a question, response is literally a grunt and they wander off. They are making a lot of changes but in total honesty, I think this will just make things worse. All costs will increase to pay for it, staff will continue to be unhelpful, and it will still take 30/45 mins to actually get into the airport. My opinion, chose Stansted or Heathrow

Awful airport. Hardly any seats for waiting. the food they served in the food village was very expensive. The toilets were filthy I will not be using this airport again in a hurry, awful experience!

Luton Airport is by far the worst airport I have ever flown from! It is so disorganised it is embarrassing. The queues were massive and I will never be flying from here again.

Used Luton twice once to Geneva and once to Rome, reccomend online check in. Average airport, typical budget airline type airport, but smooth experience without long waits. Not much selection in the terminal but was okay for the price we paid.

The worst airport I have been to. Endless queues, takes forever to get to airport from roundabout where all lanes join into one lane. Rip off charges for privilege to drop somebody off - £2.50 for 15 minutes. They actually charged £2.50 for 50 seconds. People should actually stay there for 15 minutes to get their money's worth. One pound for plastic bag - another money maker. Long queues through security, nowhere to sit after that. On way back waited for luggage for nearly half an hour. Wouldn't use it again.

Luton is becoming the worst airport in the UK. We arrived early for our flight at 7.20. The queue through security took 20 minutes - which was not that bad as the hall was completely full so we expected this to take longer. Once we passed security, then the disaster started. Nowhere to sit - even when we were prepared to buy coffee and sit in a coffee shop - everything was full. They managed to pack so many flights in the morning that the airport cannot cope. Screens did not work, no new flights were coming on, only departed flights stayed on the screens. Hundreds of people gathered by the screens, we had no other option than to go to one of the gates and sit on the windowsill and eat our home made sandwiches. On our boarding card was written that the gate closes 6.40. At 6.35 our flight still was not on the board. Fortunately I heard the announcement but due to this mistake of not telling travelers where to go, our flight was 1 hour delayed. Queue for the toilets was actually standing outside in the departure hall. After 5 minutes it did not move and we had to go to the gate and use the toilet on the plane. Fortunately the crew allowed us to use it before we departed. Unfortunately I will have to use Luton in the future as, where I have to go, only Stansted has flights to that destination and in my opinion, Stansted is about the same as Luton - queues, nowhere to sit, etc.

I have been using Luton airport since 1996 and in those good old days, it used to be called "Luton Airport" (not London Luton). With passage of time instead of improvements I have only seen decline of service and incline of prices. Things that are free in most airports are paid in Luton, name it drop off charge or trolley charge. Its a CON, those who are supporting on the basis of promotion of public transport, should realise that this service is still available freely at Heathrow. My flight got delayed for over three hours and the airline didn't have courtesy to offer food vouchers, instead they made passengers stand at the door announcing every 15 minutes that gate will be opened soon. Complaining was utterly useless with extremely rude replies from Menzies staff. I have realised that in the name of cheap flight, nothing seems to be cheap, we pay for each and every service including airline and airport and in the end its not cheap any more. I will still use this airport because I fly to a few destinations where I cannot get flights from Heathrow, otherwise Luton is probably second worst airport after Stansted.

This airport is by far the worst airport I've come across. I travel a lot and have been to many airports, and I can honestly say Luton airport is the worst. They charge you for absolutely everything, and the facilities are awful. Avoid if you can.

Luton was efficient in its job on a Friday evening in August. We arrived early and after a long stroll through the terminal we made it to passport control, annoyingly around 5 planes had touched down in a 10 minute period, thankfully ours from Nice was one of the first meaning only a 5 minute wait - however this does vary. Then onto baggage and despite there being quite a few flights arriving at (2230 ish) the bags were out within the following 10 minutes - however I still think 4 baggage belts is not enough for the number of flights during a peak arrival time. Sadly Sports equipment was not delivered to the belt but we did find the bikes somewhat unattended but all fine in the end. Then to the worst place in Luton Airport grounds known as Drop Off/Pick Up you pay minimum of £2.50 to try and be picked up in an sheep pen - honestly no need to charge and it cannot handle all the people that use it. Luckily arriving late in the evening is was just pick up but imagine it when it's both. Luton has a long way to go until it's a decent airport for now it's where budget airlines give you cheap flights and an average experiencing. EasyJet certainly got 10/10 in the budget airline category and well done to them for that. Couldn't fault them only request I would make it that they allow passengers to check in 3 hours before flights especially abroad so that you don't have to wait for ages in the check in area. Back to Luton and it's just a matter of time until it's development kicks in. Going to be a long process!

Our plane from Skiathos was delayed by 3 hours, because there was a problem at Luton with the outbound flight due to a shortage of ground staff! We then eventually boarded and flew to Luton, to be greeted by only one luggage lorry, which had to return 2/3 times to get the luggage. We waited for a long period of time due to this. This is not what I would expect from a major British airport.