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as published in the Surrey Advertiser.
Ian Murray, Managing Director, Convention Travel, Guildford, has been in the business and incentive travel industry for 25 years. Here he tells you "Why Gatwick bedevils the business traveller".
Q: Is Gatwick adequate for business needs these days?
A: My most recent experience at Gatwick’s South Terminal was dreadful: check-in was inefficient and slow. The layout of the terminal is poor, so as delays build up, all the queues meld into one another. On top of this, even before your initial inconvenience and stress, the parking is woefully inadequate.
Q: Is it really that bad?
A: One of Gatwick’s greatest detractors is London Mayor Boris Johnson who recently condemned the airport’s ‘wretched and chaotic conditions’. He said: “To call this service Third World is an insult to the many gleaming and efficient airports of developing nations.”
Johnson spoke of the shortage of passport control staff, likened the airport bosses to chimpanzees and warned that the London 2012 Olympics would be “a shambles” if this service is not improved with thousands of visitors using the airport to see the Games.
Q: Do you think London’s image is suffering because of Gatwick?
A: London is the largest city in Europe, with Gatwick the eighth busiest airport in the world. London airports topped the European league table for delays during 2007. Figures from the Association of European Airlines (AEA) show that Gatwick was second worst for delays (after Heathrow), with 30.2% of departures delayed.
An airport is like the reception desk of the country. And yet the first impressions business travellers get on arrival here are negative. Another inconvenience is the lack of hotels at the airport, and there are only two on site, the Hilton at South Terminal and the Sofitel at North Terminal.
Q: Is anything being done to address these problems and improve the situation?
A: Last month the Competition Commission’s report on the airport’s owner, BAA, was scathing. As a result, it is being forced to sell Gatwick, and give someone else the chance to do a better job.
Q: Should I avoid Gatwick altogether then?
A: Sometimes we all need to go through Gatwick. My advice is to leave yourself as much time as possible to allow for delays at check in. I know this is irritating because as a business traveller, we always lack time. But to make the ride smoother, always insure your luggage and pack light so you can take your bag as hand luggage. That way you don’t risk arriving for meetings without your suits!
Q: Is there an alternative?
A: Other options are emerging as we see short haul flight operators move in to the rail sector. Air France-KLM have announced plans to offer an international train service linking Paris to London and Amsterdam. They are merely tapping into a growing market, as thousands of passengers have switched from airlines to Eurostar in the last few years.
So, if these “airplanes on wheels” are going to deliver us to the continent in under two hours from St Pancras, without the stress and hassle we’ve long endured at our airports, who is to say they’re not the future of local European business travel?
