Luton Airport

Been a while since we've flown from Luton but felt compelled to write something after the bad reviews posted. I felt the whole experience was great. They seem to have fixed the problems with the road that I have experienced previously straight through and into the drop off area. Check in was very busy being 6am but wasn't long before I was on my way to security. Again busy but no busier than other airports I've flown from we were through and into the departure lounge inside of 20 minutes. as for the departure gates ok they are not the best facilities I've seen but at least they're not 3 mile walks like some UK airports. I don't understand the poor comments regarding the staff and service seems to me that these people obviously have an agenda of some kind I saw lots of people arguing in security about having stuff taken off them but I suppose that happens if you don't follow the rules. I would recommend using this airport and I will use it again.

Luton Airport is a nightmare to get to off the A1. Then you get to the Airport we went to the short stay parking today which is badly lit poorly surfaced and the signs are awful. Lots of exit signs so you drive towards one to realise there is no exit. The signs should have arrows on to direct you which are missing. This car park has been in this state for what seems like years. Please get it sorted or reduce the parking charges to reflect the state of it.

I was booked on Easyjet flight at 12.00 Mon 29th Oct 2012 to Madrid. On the screens outside the security area at 11.20 there was no sign of a gate or wait in the lounge or go to gate etc. The screens just said check-in counter 48 like it had been the whole time other later flights were already showing the gate number. I went to security: Only 3 lanes out of 12 were open a long line of people waiting and it went very slow took 39 minutes to go through security. Once through security I went to the screens saying: Gate closed (11:50). I missed my flight due to the lack of organization at Luton. Why is it not possible to assign proper gate on the screens in due time at other airports at least it says gate information at xx hours so one knows when to look. Luton is not big this information must be available more than 40 minutes before the flight is closing. Why are only 3 lanes open when the airport knows how many passengers are travelling resulting in unacceptable waiting times? Why are no screens in the security area to one can see when a flight is boarding or closing soon? These things are not rocket science. It results in passengers like me missing their flight it is an example of poor organization and complete neglect for the customer despite paying high airport fees. It gives Luton a deservedly bad name.

As a recent user of Luton airport and after seeing the battering reviewers have given it on here I felt the need to write a somewhat balanced review. I chose to fly from Luton despite living some 556 miles away in Inverness Scotland: the reason I could fly to Cyprus on the same day and save £660! On arrival we used the long term car park and was on a bus to the terminal within 10 mins so no problems. Check in desks with Easyjet were busy but took no longer than 15 minutes to get through. Security queues not long at all and all through easily and pleasantly? No problems at all so far (at it was 10am on a busy Sat morning). Had a pleasant enough breakfast in the cafe before leaving flight on time etc. Only issue I had was after being called to the gate Easyjet decided to allow folks who wanted to put their hand luggage in the hold do so at the gate free of charge and as a thank you allow them on as speedy boarders? Stood in a stairwell for around 10 mins after getting our tickets checked? So all in all it was not bad. Return journey as well was fine slight delay in getting through security but 4 planes seemed to have landed at once causing larger queues but this was only about 10 mins hold up. Bus to the car park arrived promptly as well.

I recently had the misfortune to fly from Luton twice recently. The security area is a disgrace one feels like cattle in a barn the procedure is unpleasant. The departure lounge whilst modern needs to be 10 times bigger. The access walk to the planes is far too long fortunately I am fit but for older people it must be awful then you have to stand for up to half an hour in an unpleasant area waiting to walk to the planes in any weather. When I pre book at the mid stay or long stay I am unable to get out with the ticket given at the machine issued on entry about 20 cars behind me the last time everyone was getting frustrated and annoyed it took a long time to get the barrier lifted. The Airport like it was 10 years ago was far better.

My recent experience of Luton airport operations last week means I intend to use Stansted instead. The luggage reclaim on my homeward journey took 1 hour 10 min for any bags to appear on the belt. This is not an isolated case its a common occurrence. Why was there no announcement of any delay you get a railway announcement if a train is 5 min late - it's called customer service and I believe this is especially a problem on Sunday nights.I had a fantastic holiday but the last hour left a sour taste in my mouth. The crass lack of management response to the mounting issues and complaints indicates the attitude to the public and services they are responsible for. We the public pay for a service that they are supposed to provide - they fall a long way short of expectation.

I have to travel through Luton airport twice a week and have done for 8 years. There is never seating room in the check in area. There is a rip-off fee for 'Priority' security a distance of some 10 metres and a possible time saving of 15 minutes another rip-off scam based on the exact size and the type of fastening of clear plastic bags required for liquids. In the past year there has been a distinct improvement in the politeness and care of the security search staff but you can still be bawled at or humiliated in front of other passengers. The amount of seating in the airport 'lounge' has been reduced (area taken over by Pret a Manger and other cafés). After boarding clearance has begun the holding areas are cramped and are often simply stark staircases. On return I have found the automatic passport gates (installed at enormous cost to the tax-payer) open just 7 times out of the hundreds (see above) of times I have travelled whilst staff actually manually checking passports are always too few while colleagues stand idly by. Final insult is added to injury by the group of further border control staff clip-boards in hand waiting to pounce on travellers who have just cleared immigration.

This is a pretty disgraceful excuse for an airport poor facilities disinterested staff overcrowding and embarrassingly poor infrastructure. There are plenty of better more accessible airports in the South East I have no idea why Luton seems intent on alienating it's customers with such a poor airport experience.

For at least 2 years this airport has been a disgrace to the UK. I would now much rather travel from my home in Milton Keynes to either Stansted Heathrow or a Midlands airport than put up with what passes for service at Luton. As everyone knows gaining entry to the airport itself is a nightmare. For how long are we going to have to add on an hour sitting in stationary traffic for the last mile before gaining entry to a car park? It's been at least 18 months now and no improvement. No-one cares! When you get there unlike other airports every single thing you take for granted at other airports carries a charge at Luton. And finally on my last two trips you get the security supervisor from hell. No arguments with staff generally but this particular gentleman takes delight in demeaning and insulting customers (not myself I hasten to add). Luton is beyond a joke.

As soon as you arrive at Luton airport and see that it looks like a glorified sports centre next to a parking lot you start to expect the worse. I tried to be optimistic but it wasn't easy. In fact I'd say it's hard to imagine how spending a night in an airport could be any worse: the main issue being the music that they insist on playing throughout the terminal the entire night. They don't seem to have grasped or simply don't care that not a single customer wanted the music on because we were all trying to sleep. Now to be fair I didn't experience any queues but I do somewhat feel that might be because my flight was at 6.30am. The staff fall into two categories which I think explains the differences between some of these reviews; some are quite friendly and do their best to help whilst others do honestly look like they are suffering. One thing that surprised me was that there is no information desk literally no qualified staff beyond the departures control - only shop staff. So if you have any questions - tough there's nobody to ask. I am not mistaken here there really is no non-retail staff around the departures lounge. Lack of seating. Club music throughout the night. Forced to pay £1 for two resealable bags.