Extra time at the airport?

[Dingdong99]

We have a really early flight to Turkey tomorrow at 6.40am. We normally allow 2 hours at the airport, but should we leave more time? I'm not sure if there are still delays in and queues at the airport

I don't want to be stressing but also not keen to get there even earlier if it's not necessary

Which airport?

Depends on airport

which airport?
an (probably more inportantly) how many flights due to depart in the time 1 hour either side of your flight?

some airports are only fully staffed from 8ish - which means less stations for the bag drop & security check.

We're flying from Gatwick South

get there early

Would you allow 3 hours instead of 2?

Definitely allow extra time.

Depends when your airline baggage drop opens. No pont getting there extra early if you hace to wait. Depending on destination most are 2hrs before

Phone the airport and ask

Does the airport offer a twilight luggage drop off?

Just get their early.
Downside: You have to get up even earlier but as it's the middle of the night anyway, it's not that much different. You may have a bit of time to wait at the airport.
Upside: You will not miss your flight and you'll likely not have to queue as long

Definitely leave more time, we flew from Leeds Bradford a couple of weeks ago and there were thousands of people waiting to get through security, the queues were snaking through the airport and outside.
There was one security person on duty, loads of people missed their flights.
Leave early, once you're through security you can get something to eat, get a seat and make your flight.

I would get there three hours in advance. There's always enough to do and the time goes quickly.

If you have online check in and just need to drop bags then 2 hours is plenty! Fly from Heathrow recently and it was extremely quick.

How early did you get there,?

We are flying from Gatwick south tomorrow

I've checked their Twitter and they're still advising 2 hours for short haul and 3 hours for long haul

Make sure you have all your paperwork in order, have checked in online and sorted your bag for security and you should be good

We are aiming to get to the car park around 2.5 hours before our gate opens

3 hrs before our flight and once through security only had time for a wee! 🙄
Flew with jet2 and we were an hour late taking off because they waited for missing passengers, jet2 staff were pulling people out of the queues to get them on their flights.
Easyjet were taking off on time and they were the people missing their flights.
It was complete pandemonium.