Latest news with #Gatwick
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
When should you arrive at the airport? Our travel team reveal how long they leave (without missing a flight)
Last year, we had gate lice, raw dogging and the check-in chicken – but now the latest travel trend is testing the limits of airport arrival times. 'Airport theory' is a TikTok trend where people attempt to whizz through check-in, bag drop and security with just 15 minutes to spare before boarding their flight. The 'theory' suggests that traditional timeframes to get from the terminal to aircraft doors see travellers waste unnecessary hours hanging around. But does a short dash through the terminal save precious packing time, or is the trend pointlessly risking a missed flight? Here's how far ahead the frequent flyers of our travel team rock up to the terminal, from allowing plenty of time for a Pret to cutting it fine in the security line. Just in time Unless you miss the odd flight, you are spending too long at airports. Obviously, though, missing a flight is annoying and expensive. So I work out the last train that will get me to the airport before the check-in deadline, then take the one before to allow some recovery time. Typically I will reach the airport with 10-15 minutes to spare. But if trains are disrupted, it can be close. Last year going to Kathmandu on Qatar Airways from Gatwick, I reached the check-in desk (physically the furthest possible location from the airport rail station) with three minutes to spare before the one-hour check-in deadline expired. On occasion, I hitchhike to the airport, most recently to Glasgow, but that really does inject uncertainty. – Simon Calder, Travel Correspondent Planned ahead This trend makes my skin prickle. Despite flying relatively frequently for work, I still get stressed about my journey to the airport. I like to allow at least two hours for flights to Europe and three-and-a-half if I'm flying internationally. The process is undoubtedly smoother than it used to be, and I recently flew Ryanair where even checking in my bag was done by a machine, but it's the fear of the unknown that gets to me. Traffic/rail delays/long queues/etc. I plan my journey at least a week in advance and get there early enough to sit smugly with a coffee as I watch the panicky last-minute travellers arriving flustered at the gate. – Emilee Tombs, Assistant Travel Editor As little airport as possible While I don't mind flying, I'm not a fan of airports. As with other forms of public transport, I always seem to be in painfully close proximity to the person conducting an extended phone conversation on loudspeaker with zero consideration for those around them, children sans headphones blasting Bluey from tablets, and passengers of all ages scrolling through social media at volume (yes, I AM fun at parties). Hanging around a crammed departures lounge with irritable, exhausted and anxious fellow passengers, paying £7 for a substandard Pret sandwich and trying and failing to navigate the world's narrowest aisles in Boots with a wheelie in tow is far from a vibe. For this reason, my aim is to spend as little time as possible at the airport without running the risk of actually missing my flight – but I'm reasonably conservative when it comes to timings. For short-haul flights, 90 minutes seems more than reasonable, while for long-haul flights, I'll stretch to two hours at a push. If I'm travelling during a peak time, such as school holidays, I might reluctantly allow myself an additional 30 minutes, but anything more than two and a half hours seems deranged. I haven't missed a flight yet. – Joanna Whitehead, Travel Writer Somewhere in the middle The cavalier attitude I used to display towards airport arrivals has been replaced with something rather more cautious after a couple of near-misses – yet you'll rarely catch me at an airport much more than two hours before my flight departs. Even at the fanciest terminals, I have no desire to spend more time at the airport than is absolutely necessary. If I have lounge access, I may arrive 2 hours and 30 minutes ahead of departure, but I'd still rather be at home than even the nicest parts of Gatwick or Heathrow. Something between 90 minutes and two hours feels about right - enough time to nip into Pret, but not quite enough for a Wetherspoons breakfast. – Annabel Grossman, Global Travel Editor With time for a Wetherspoons If I am truly honest, I am not always a punctual person. However, my airport arrival time may be the exception to my 'running five minutes late' lifestyle. Not because I fear missing a flight, or because my flatmate has again lied to me about what time we actually need to be somewhere, but – as cruisers claim that the holiday starts when they step onboard – I am firmly of the belief that a holiday starts with spending an extortionate amount on a flute of fizz in an airport's Spoons-esque establishment. For this recreational reason, I am loyal to the general guidelines and tend to allow at least two hours to get to the gate, peruse Duty-Free and down a prosecco. – Natalie Wilson, Travel Writer By the book When it comes to airport punctuality, I'm strictly by the book. I know this because my partner's approach of arriving at the last minute leaves me cold with dread. So if the recommended time to check in is three hours before the flight departs, that's when I try to turn up, with perhaps even a cheeky 15-minute buffer thrown in on top of that. And when the gate is shown, I'll head to the gate. My partner? That's her cue to buy a new pair of sunglasses and a couple of coffees. – Ted Thornhill, US Travel Editor There's time to spare As a self-confessed over-organiser whose stress levels skyrocket whenever I am late, I could never take part in the airport theory trend. I tend to arrive at the airport at least three hours before a flight departs. While baggage drop and security never take up copious amounts of time, I always allocate over an hour or so in case of any wild airport queues or chaos fuelled by short staff or system failures. I would rather have hours sampling Duty Free perfume or sitting down for a drink and something to eat than sprinting through the concourse. I apply this to arriving at the gate too; as soon as my gate number is announced on the information screen, I am immediately on my way there. Gate staff sometimes crack on with loading passengers straight away, and being first at the gate can sometimes result in boarding before most, grabbing the all-important cabin bag space in the lockers and relaxing while everyone else gets impatient waiting for others to sit down so they can move up the aisle. – Amelia Neath, Travel Writer Two hours – no more, no less I'm a big fan of arriving two hours early as I fear missing the plane and like time for a pre-flight pint. That timing is probably pretty standard, but I also do that for long haul where I think the recommendation is three, so I guess I'm a bit brave. The thought of arriving 15 minutes before strikes fear into my bones! – Marc Shoffman, cruise writer Most airports recommend allowing two to three hours to check in and get through security before your scheduled flight time. In the UK, London Gatwick says: 'Generally we recommend you arrive at least two hours before your flight to allow plenty of time.' The Crawley aviation hub advises that check-in opens 'around three hours' before the departure of long-haul flights. Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, says: 'We recommend getting to the airport three hours before your flight if you're travelling internationally, or two hours if you're travelling domestically or to Europe.' Airlines tend to echo the two-hour guidance, with Ryanair passengers told to 'arrive at the check-in or bag drop desk at least 2 hours before they are due to fly'. Simon Calder's top tips To reduce the amount of time you need to allow: eliminate all the uncertainties you can, then build in a bit of padding. Choose public transport to the airport, ideally on rails rather than road, which runs to a published schedule. No luggage to check in. You don't need it, you won't have to allow extra time for an indeterminate wait at bag drop, and by taking carry-on only you also eliminate the risk that your case will go off on its own little holiday. Check-in online, print out your boarding pass (or save it to your smartphone) and you can head straight for the joy of the security queue.
Sky News
15 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
Air India suspends some long-haul flights after fatal crash and reduces the frequency of others
Air India has confirmed it is suspending some of its long-haul flights from Saturday, including routes using the same type of Boeing aircraft which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad. The decision follows last Thursday's fatal crash involving a Boeing 787-8 flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, with around 30 fatalities on the ground, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. It was confirmed on Wednesday that the sole survivor, a British national, had left hospital. Most temporary reductions will last until at least mid-July, affecting both 787 and 777 aircraft types, and includes routes to Gatwick. The firm said in a statement it was cutting international services because of "enhanced pre-flight safety checks" and to accommodate "additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East". Routes between Delhi-Nairobi, Amritsar-Gatwick and Goa-Gatwick are being suspended entirely. 0:34 The frequency of other services will also be reduced from Delhi, Bengaluru and Amritsar to certain destinations in North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Europe - including Heathrow and Birmingham. The route between Ahmedabad and Gatwick remains unaffected. Air India has apologised and promised to contact affected passengers to offer alternative flights or refunds. The airline's chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran on Wednesday insisted the Boeing 787-8 aircraft had a "clean history". "The right engine was a new engine put in [in] March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and was due [its] next maintenance check in December 2025," he told the Indian channel Times Now.. Meanwhile, India's aviation regulator has issued warning notices to Air India for breaching safety rules after three of its Airbus planes flew despite being overdue checks on emergency slides and for being slow to address the issue, according to news agency Reuters. The warning notices and an investigation report were not in any way related to last week's crash and were sent days before that incident. The government has also said there has not been any decision yet on where the flight data recorders, also called black boxes, will be analysed. Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported that they were due to be sent to the US so the data could be extracted, as they had suffered fire damage and could not be analysed in India. The government said in a statement that India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) would decide where the recorders would be examined after making a "due assessment" of all technical, safety and security considerations. Black boxes have two components - the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder - and provide crucial insights for crash investigators. They include altitude, airspeed, the status of controls and pilot conversations which help determine probable causes of crashes.
Khaleej Times
21 hours ago
- Health
- Khaleej Times
India plane crash: 215 DNA samples of victims matched, medical authorities say
Medical authorities in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad have said that 215 DNA samples of the those who died in the Air India plane crash have been matched. Ahmedabad Civil Hospital Superintendent Rakesh Joshi told news agency ANI on Thursday that the mortal remains of 198 deceased have been handed over to their families. "Of the 198 deceased, the mortal remains of 15 deceased have been dispatched by air and 183 by road through ambulances," Joshi said. Air India had earlier confirmed that flight AI171, operating from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick on June 12, 2025, crashed shortly after takeoff, resulting in 241 fatalities out of 242 people on board. The sole survivor, a British national of Indian origin, is currently being treated in hospital. According the flight manifest, the passengers included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, 7 Portuguese, and 1 Canadian.
News.com.au
a day ago
- General
- News.com.au
Air India releases new details of the two engines on doomed London flight
Air India has revealed that one of the two engines on the doomed Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight that crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport was new, and the other wasn't due for a service until the end of the year. 'The right engine was a new engine put in March 2025,' the airline's chairman N Chandrasekaran told local Indian news channel, Times Now. 'The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and (was) due for its next maintenance check in December 2025'. Investigations are underway into how the flight bound for London's Gatwick Airport crashed into a medical students hostel last Thursday, killing at least 270 people. Mr Chandrasekaran said it may be a month before preliminary results are available and discouraged speculation until the investigation is complete. 'There are speculations about human error, speculations about airlines, speculations about engines, maintenance,' he said, 'But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history. 'I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that.' The plane's two black boxes have been recovered allowing for analysis of the cockpit voice recorder, which captures audio including voices, alarms and background noises from the cockpit, and the flight data recorder, which logs flight parameters like engine performance and the plane's speed and altitude. Mr Chandrasekaran also said the flight's captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, was very experienced with over 11,500 hours of flying experience behind him, while his first officer Clive Kunder, had more than 3,400 hours. 'What I hear from colleagues is that they were excellent pilots and great professionals,' he said. 'So we can't jump to any conclusions.' A team of experts from Boeing, engine supplier GE Aerospace and representatives from the UK and US have joined the Indian-led investigation. Funeral services have begun for the casualties of India's worst aviation disaster in three decades, with families laying their loved ones to rest across the country. The sole survivor of the crash, 40-year-old British man Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, helped carry the coffin of his younger brother Ajay, who was also on the flight, in a funeral procession through the streets of Diu, a coastal town in India's east, on Wednesday. Mr Ramesh was only released from hospital a day earlier and still had bandages on his face. The bodies of more than 200 victims have been identified, with the families of others still waiting for their loved ones to be returned to them.
CNA
a day ago
- General
- CNA
Air India crash survivor mourns brother killed in the same tragedy during emotional funeral
Ramesh Viswashkumar, the sole survivor of the deadly Air India plane crash, broke down as the body of his brother arrived in his hometown of Diu city, India on Wednesday (Jun 18). Viswashkumar and his brother were on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for Britain's Gatwick Airport on Jun 12, when the plane began losing altitude seconds after takeoff and crashed, killing over 270 people.
