Why is Gatwick such a big pain in the arse to get ro

Gatwick is very easy to get to if you’re on any of the London train lines - if you can get to Clapham Junction / London Bridge it’s a change and 20-30 mins.

Far better if travelling by public transport than going to Heathrow (this may have changed for north Londoners with the Lizzie Line).

Awful airport! I would rather pay extra and fly from Heathrow.

With regard to why certain airlines use certain airports it's often a case of take-off/landing slot availabilty and cost.

Heathrow is pretty much full so airlines have to either try and buy slots there when they come on the market (at as much $75 Million a pop) or use another airport in the south east e.g. Gatwick or Stansted, where slots might be slightly more plentiful and certainly cheaper.

The cost of slots also means Heathrow flights have to be big consistent big earners, which is one reason why some BA routes have moved back and forth between LHR and LGW over the years (and leads to a lot of people having to do the often frankly horrible journey between LHR and LGW when connecting).

There are fast trains from Clapham Junction to Gatwick. I won’t fly from anywhere else. Heathrow and Stansted would take me hours to get to.

Heathrow is appalling for me to get to.

I was about to say we're a 25min drive away so it's no problem. Tbf though we only go once a year or so and most recently we've been getting the train to avoid the drop off charge of £10.

I mean, over 400,000 people do live in Croydon though.
Then there is Redhill, Horley, Horsham, Crawley etc. Lots of places which have Gatwick as the most convenient airport!

Or living anywhere on the trainlines to gatwick! Trains don’t just shuttle between Gatwick and Croydon!

among other shorter routes like the one from Horsham, the one from Redhill or the slightly longer one from Brighton, there’s also the much longer line that runs between Portsmouth harbour to Gatwick (and continues north of Gatwick) I counted and there are 38 station stops along that line between Portsmouth and Gatwick!

so 100% agree with others that it depends where you live!

Well people who live in Essex (or further north into East Anglia) don’t all want to travel to Heathrow or Gatwick so there is nothing odd about Emirates flying from Stansted. It’s a 17 min drive from my house. Why would I want to travel 1.5 hours to Heathrow or Gatwick, which can easily become three if there’s an incident on the M25, if I can fly from my local airport?

This . Not really London is it .

Some people’s geography is absolutely shocking!

Obviously Stansted is far easier than Gatwick for someone in East Anglia…. but someone saying it isn’t probably had bad luck getting caught in traffic going to Stansted at some point, and thinks therefore it’s further away!

Because the only sizeable settlement south of the Thames is Croydon…🙃

Sussex, Surrey, Kent and the rest of South London exist and have a combined population of many, many million.

from where?

Leeds to Kings X
Into St Pancras and train to Gatwick. What’s difficult?

Heathrow and Gatwick are both awful to get too, Stansted on the other hand is a breeze.

Funnily enough it is far easier for us to fly from our local regional airport to Schipol and fly onwards from there than it is form any of the big UK airports. Its so easy that we even see people fly to Schipol to pick up flights to the USA flying back over the UK who so its faster for them to use their local small airport and fly to Amserdam and transfer than it is drive to UK airports and wait in the lines there.

Simple answer is there's not enough capacity for the whole BA operation at Heathrow..

For anyone on a direct train line it’s very easy, easier than Heathrow and I don’t live anywhere near Croydon.

Heathrow is a pain because public transport there is awful and it’s always horrible traffic.

I live on the south coast and hate having to fly from Heathrow because that means a train into London and then the Tube to Heathrow.
I love it if I can get a flight from Gatwick because it's on the direct line. Much cheaper, quicker and easier.

We live in N London and avoid Gatwick like the plague. Hate travelling there, and hate it once we are there. We occasionally have to use it due to lack of other options but that is the last resort.

I flew from Gatwick for first time this year and it was easy for me!

It’s nice and handy for me - 15-20 mins. But yeah it’s not exactly handy for central London, I mean it’s in Sussex.

It's one of the easiest airports to get to. I live in Surrey and it's a 15/20 min drive. The M23 is rarely busy, outside of rush hour. Parking is easy, if not cheap and public transport is easy. I have to be dragged kicking screaming to any country that involves having to travel to and fly out of the absolute shit hole that is Heathrow.

Now we know you're not a serious person

I live in South London and know how to change trains. Last time I flew to Gatwick, I arrived home exactly an hour after landing. Can't do that from any other London airport

You have absolutely no idea! I live 15 minutes from an airport, but there are so few places we can fly to. To have the (direct) access to the rest of the world like you have in the south east would be amazing.

Well, I much prefer Heathrow as it's closer. I imagine if I were nearer Gatwick I'd be happy they're putting more stuff there, I have always found it quite a nice airport and a lot more relaxed and friendly than LHR. But since I'm only 20-25 miles to Heathrow I get very annoyed they keep shoving major routes off to Gatwick - BA don't even fly to Bangkok from Heathrow any more, which shocked me. I tend to think of Gatwick as being short-haul, and of Heathrow as the 'proper' airport! Luton's hell, it's probably not much less convenient than Heathrow, but it's such a dump I'd need an extremely good reason to use it. I have never been to Stanstead, and nor do I intend to; it's absurd to call it a London airport. Might as well call Southampton a London airport! Find it extremely odd that Emirates use it.