Airport arrival time

[LG123]

I'm flying a lot this year... I usually get to the aiport 45mins-1hr before if travelling solo 2-3hrs with the kids. I hate sitting around an airport for hours, I use fast track security too.

What time do you all get to the airport for domestic and short haul? My riskiest was 25mins before a flight with BA from London to Glasgow!

A lot of this will depend on the airport. Idleave a lit longe at Heathrow or Manchester than at Leeds or Edinburgh.

Flew out of Stansted on saturday, was there 4 hours before the flight!!
But sat in the lounge for 3.
I always arrive way too early but would rather that.

I fly a lot and with some airports/flights, there's no way you'd make it in 45 minutes, maybe if you ran fast! If they need to bus you to the plane, then that adds on time. And there's no consistency as to which flights that applies to.

I generally go from Heathrow or London City. With London City an hour is enough as it's tiny. But I generally allow 1:30 for Heathrow. I don't fast track security but am generally lucky to never hit bad queues and am usually through within 10 minutes, or less.

I usually just have enough time to have a coffee and use the loo before the gates called. I'm not waiting around for ages.

Most of my flights are Gatwick, Heathrow and Southampton.

It depends hugely on the airport. There are two airports near me. One is tiny. It is just one big room really so if you land 20 minutes before you have plenty of time. The other airport is bigger so you could arrive 45 minutes before departure and normally you would have plenty of time although you would want to give a bit more time for security at certain times..

I am a two hour at least kind of person regardless in those airports. A big International Airport I am there way to long in advance (and end up spending crazy money in a restaurant to kill the time!)

Since some of the gates at Gatwick are 20mins walk from the departure lounge, plus the gate closes at least 15 mins before departure...

Thats over half an hour before you start dealing with even fast track security (10mins) and other walking (10mins)

So thats an hour useful up if you are flying from a far gate!

And how close you live to the airport.

When we fly from Manchester we have to factor in hold ups, especially in winter when many roads over the Pennines are closed.

45 minutes sounds very stressful to me.

If it’s half term with the kids I’ll factor in travel delays/queues etc so min 2 hours 30 for a big London airport.

No Kids and not half term I’d still aim for 2 hours as I hate being stressed and I’m more than happy to sit with a coffee in the airport rather than be running for a flight or miss it..

It depends on the airport, typically I'd aim for 90min-2hr with hold luggage and 60-90min with hand luggage only. It also depends on the time of day - if it's an early flight then I value the extra minutes in bed!! I'm also lucky that I live close to my local airport so don't have to factor loads of contingency into getting there.

DH and I travel a lot (for work and play) and we're experts at dressing and packing to whizz through fast track security, and then heads down fast walk straight to gate - dodging all of the day dreamers and dawdlers. We usually aim to hit the security queue an hour before take off, maybe an hour and a half if we're flying Friday or during the school holidays.

We recently flew with DH's family and said we'd meet them at the airport gate - they wanted to arrive FIVE HOURS before the flight. MIL was losing her mind with us, constant ringing and texting and panicking. We got to the gate with 25 minutes of boarding left - guess who wasn't there? They'd settled into the Wetherspoons and lost track of time, queue mad sprint to get to the gate a minute before boarding closed...

Our usual airport is Manchester (sadly!), and we'd never plan to arrive with less than 3 hours to spare. You can be stuck in the security queue alone for 60-90 minutes, even in the fast pass priority queue sometimes, yet other times you can be through in 10 minutes. There's no consistency - all depends on how many machines/staff they have at the time.

Then there's the risk of traffic congestion/accidents/road works on the motorway to get there. Plus a very poor and unreliable shuttle bus service from the airport car parks.

Once we left home five hours before departure time, from our home an hour away, and just got delays and queues every step of the way and only just made the flight - we were literally the last people on board. The year before, we left at the same kind of time allowance and were bored rigid waiting around the airport for around 3 hours as none of the stages had any delays at all and the security/baggage check had no queue at all - straight through.

I'd never risk having less than 3 hours. Too much is outside your control.

Flew from Dublin last week. Was there the recommended 2 hours prior. Sailed through security and ended up waiting for almost 2 hours. Such a pain. You just never know though what it will be like.

I fly a lot on my own.
Always 2 hours.
I'd rather sit and read / have a coffee than be late.
Last week because of the coach time to the airport it was 3 hours.

As well as getting through the airport, it's also worth considering what could go wrong on the way there - I'm in West Yorkshire so use Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. We allow more time for the latter two because of the risk of hold ups on the M62.

But when there, an hour is more than enough at Liverpool, but I'd allow at least two for Manchester - I've been in the security queue for over an hour and would have missed a flight if hadn't taken off late. Leeds is bizarrely unpredictable. Sometimes you can get through in 5 minutes, others it's nearly an hour and they start pulling people forward flight by flight.

I can beat your riskiest though - I travel to the Isle of Man a lot and 30 mins there is generous, so often arrive 20 mins before take off and it still feels like there's loads of time. If I ever go to Rome again, I'll be a lot more relaxed about leaving from Ciampino which is tiny (and oddly the only time I can think of where Ryanair use an airport that is nearer to the city than it's main airport) I was there 3 hours once due to a delay and I think there were only 2 other flights scheduled during that time.

@Badbadbunny I feel your pain and have been in similar situations more than once. Once it took us well over an hour to park at the shitty Jetparks car park and get to the terminal (never again).

But have a look at the on airport Meet and Greet or Drop & Go - it costs a little more than the long stay, but they park your car for you and it's just a short walk to the terminal so well worth the extra.

We always book using Quidco for cashback or the Moneysaving Expert Holiday Extras link for the best price.

I like to be three hours before for international but I cannot bear stress and being late.

Bare

Honestly there are so many factors. I live in Yorkshire and have to cross the pennines to get to Manchester airport.

I can drive but that takes anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours. I can take a direct train but they're every hour and are routinely up to 45 mins late or cancelled altogether.

So if my flight is 3pm, I'll aim to be there for around 1pm. But if I'm getting the train I can't get the train due to get in at 1pm. If that one is cancelled, the next train would get me there an hour before IF it was on time. So I have to get the train getting me in for noon. Similar if driving, I have to assume it will take me 3 hours + ages to find a parking space even if it will only take me 90 mins and can park straight away.

My riskiest was 25mins before a flight with BA from London to Glasgow!

That would be a conformance fail at LHR T5, possibly nowadays a fail at the other LHR terminals…”conformance” being the time at the start of security

The T5 requirement AFAIK is no later than 35 min before STD and applies even if you’ve done an on-line check in.

When I was regular passenger through T5 I generally tried to get the terminal no later than STD-60.

Similar to me. I could get trains, but as Northern Fail and TPE are so unreliable (hourly services) we tend to drive. If Woodhead is closed then it is the M62 which is a much longer route, and the horrible M60.

This is why we have to allow ages to get to the airport. It isn't like living on the Gatwick Express line.

Wr try to fly from Leeds Bradford if we can.

Hoping that they are able to reopen Doncaster Sheffield.

I've remembered one time I did arrive only 15 minutes before a flight as someone was dropping me off and had got lost. But it was Newquay airport, which is little more than a large shed 😂so I still made it on time!

Also a Leeds/Bradford person. We usually aim to get there an hour before the flight as never have bags to check in and it's such a small airport. If we fly from Manchester we give ourselves loads of time. In winter many transpennine roads closed because of snow and bad weather and the trains are dogshit. TPE loves to randomly cancel the Manchester airport train at the last minute.

Hopefully the expansion of LBA due to complete late next year I think will lead to a wider choice of flights from there, saving us all the trek across the M62 to Manchester.

Most airlines require you to be at the gate 30 minutes before departure so even with my local airport I arrive at least 75 minutes before the flight time allow time to check my luggage (not a fan of carry on myself, I just take a small handbag on board) and get through security which can take anything up to 45 minutes but is 15 minutes from the taxi with no queue due to distance. I've left it finer, just under an hour, (due to traffic) and had to sprint to get my flight!

Id rather give myself time for a meal / drinks at the airport than turn up sweaty and stressed for the flight.

Do you think it somehow makes you a cool international jet setter to cut it so fine?