So very kind of you Pink and Lilac.  Thank you so much.

I put my daughter on a flight out of Gatwick early hours of Sat morning and it took her an hour to drop her bag and get through security. I would say that this was pretty quick given it is peak holiday season.

Just leave plenty of time, check in ahead of getting to the airport and if possible book security fast track for peace of mind - this isn't always available I hasten to add but if it is I would suggest it is worth doing.

Happy holidays.

Any updates re Gatwick airport please.  We haven't flown anywhere since 2019 and  are somewhat apprehensive!

We flew from Heathrow Terminal 5 last week on a 9am flight. Got there 3 hours early (as advised by the LHR website) to find no bag drop until 2 hours before (we’d already checked in online and printed boarding passes). In the end they let us check in bags 2.5 hours early and there was zero queue; likewise with security - we flew through. I think it was the quickest I’ve ever got through to Departures! I was worried they might have overbooked the flight (our original - earlier - flight was cancelled and they must have put a lot of us on the 9am) but although the flight was completely full, I don’t think anyone was bumped. People with larger cabin bags were required to check them into the hold, though.

We flew from LGW North to Madrid on 23rd July, returning last Sat (6th).  We went with Easyjet and I'd been dreading it due to all of the publicity. But we flew through the airports - here and in Spain, and didn't spend more than 5 minutes in passport control at the Spanish end when we arrived. We did have cabin luggage only, and we also paid for speedy/priority security passes at LGW, but we needn't have bothered as even at 0800 on the first Sat after (state) schools finished, there was hardly a queue.  Arriving back this Sat to LGW, there was a long passport queue for the manned desks, but we went through the automatic gates, so only queued for a few minutes.  All in all, it was super easy and quick - we'd built so much slack in to the journey because of the stories in the paper, so we had to hang around a lot at the airport, but we found a quiet corner and it was OK.  I think LGW have got their act together - I believe LHR may be more of an issue. (And we didn't have to check in luggage, so that may have been bad, I didn't look!). 

 

Terminal 5 Heathrow was a breeze going out and coming in. Terminal 3 in May was hectic and busy.

I think it really depends on airport and destination so arrive in good time just in case.

I think that they are much improved although I think it is different each and every day at each airport.

My brother almost missed a flight this morning at Stanstead as he had to go and buy a mask for a flight to Ibiza. That was despite being there nearly 3 hours ahead of time. Do check what the requirements are for your carrier and for the country you are going into. 

NO!
Flew out of Heathrow Terminal 5 first weekend after schools finished and no issues at all !
Think they’ve sorted the ground staff strike threat now anyway.
If you get a flight booked, just go .
Enjoy your holiday !

I’ve flown out of Gatwick south and north terminals in the past two weeks. Both were absolutely fine. That includes last Saturday morning which I thought would be terrible but there was no queue for bag drop (although we did have speedy boarding) and security was fine. Suggest you go from Gatwick!!

I agree with all the previous posts but...if you do have any flexibility then avoid the obvious pinch points ie weekend flights and early morning flight departures and Heathrow and Gatwick airports. If you can fly out of the smaller airports, London City or Stansted it should be better.  Good Luck 

We had a horrific experience at Heathrow Terminal 3 a couple of weeks ago. We did not have bags to check but queued for 2.5 hours to get to security and were still nowhere near the front of the queue. 50 mins before our flight they heard my pleas and pulled us out of the line to fast track us to the scanners as they agreed we were going to miss our flight…. But we then got held up there as the person in front of us had all kinds of things in hand luggage they shouldn’t have had. We then had to run with our children through the airport to the farthest gate and got there 30 seconds before the gate closed for boarding. Super stressful, the children were crying, it was awful.

Flying out of Gatwick last week was fine. We arrived 2.5 hours before, queued 1/2 hour for check-in (our fault for missing the online check in deadline) and were through security in 15 mins.

However, we did then have to sit on the plane for 30mins before take off because there were issues with the air traffic control slot. We took hand luggage only. On arrival back in the UK we were through the airport in half an hour and on the train to Clapham Junction.

So in summary, not quite as seamless as usual but not bad. Very much worth it for a week in the sun and a change of scenery

We flew out of Gatwick north: Security fine, we have hand luggage so no problem with bag drop.

Problem was easyJet. The plane was smaller than the amount booked on to it, so 48 people were bumped. The flight was half full from people bumped the day before,

Our flight was then three hours delayed.

The airport was filthy, the cafes were understaffed and less produce in them, not making it an enjoyable customer experience

Not for us. We flew out of Gatwick, 10 mins to drop bags, 20 mins through security/check in. Bags all arrived with us.

P.S. in Terminal 5 they would only let you queue for the bag drop 2 hours before your flight (this was to mainland Europe) so there was no point getting there mega-early. Presumably this is to avoid everyone turning up early, causing more crowds