Corinne76 wrote:

You can also park for 1 hr for free at the Long Stay South car park if you want a slightly calmer experience

Never heard that before, do you have a reference at all please?

I noticed it on the sign at the entrance when we were there a few weeks ago - it's also confirmed at the bottom of this web page - http://www.gatwickairport.com/parking-transport/parking/pick-up--drop-off/

Of all the time I worked at that airport, I never knew that.....brilliant post.

A recent update , as from 1st July gatwick airport are going to be strictly enforcing the policy of drop off only on Its forecourts , they have information flyers at the airport , but a link from their website explains the situation

http://www.gatwickairport.com/parking-transport/parking/pick-up--drop-off/

When I'm next up (after the school holidays) I will have a look at what they mean of "strictly enforcing" It might be more policed during the peak time just ahead with many more passengers expected during the main holidays ??

That's a bit naughty of Gatwick airport as people pick up on the drop off area all the time, in fact the private taxis do too except for the airport taxis.
The problem with collecting people at the short stay car parks is you are going to get stung by the charges.
Some of the short stay car parks allows 15 mins. but in all fair honesty the chances of you collecting someone in under that time frame is unrealistic.
I would have to say that this is rather unethical of the airport and is aimed at every person being collected as incurring a parking charge for the person driving the car.
In legal terms what they are saying is also total rubbish, as the forecourts aka 'passenger drop off areas' are actually public highways and have double yellow lines, which does means you cant wait but you can unload/load, so as long as you are stopping and loading then you are totally within your legal rights to do so.
As for Gatwick airport insisting you have to use their short stay car parks, well they are talking with cash tills in their agenda.

I agree to a certain degree , the drop off area does seem to be getting busier , especially at the North as they have the sofitel and premier inn now , they are saying that they allow free drop off ( some airports do charge ) and perhaps because people are actually parked up and waiting for a few mins to pick up arriving passengers it is becoming more congested .
Usually when we go the wife drops me off with cases and then goes to park up the car , and then when we get back , she catches the bus back to the long stay brings the car round and and picks me up with the cases , it all takes only 20 secs max , but I think that people are parking up for a while when collecting / pick up and this is what they want to stop , they have to keep things moving if they want to preserve free drop off , which I assume they want to do

I just noticed that the opportunity to wait for free at the long stay car park for an hour at the south terminal for free has been removed.

I am going to be spending a week up at Gatwick airport over the next few days and I am hoping to write an extensive article and hopefully make Youtube videos about what exactly is going on up at the airport now, as I spoke to an airport parking operator yesterday who now said that some approved operators are working out of the passenger drop off area and some are working out of the short stay car parks,however, the companies who operate out of the 'passenger drop off areas' have to pay a premium fee to do this, so obvioulsy this fee is being passed on to the customers.
The whole idea of the introduction of the 'approved operator scheme' was to get rid of rogue traders and protect the customers/air passengers....what seems to have happened is Gatwick airport has made the airport even more confusing for drivers, turned the system into a larger cash cow and only just the moved rogue cowboy traders into the short stay car parks.
Personally, having worked in the airport parking industry at Gatwick airport, I am totally perplexed by Gatwick's administration and the boffins who run the airport really need to sort this nonsense out once and for all.
I will come back later when I have explored this is in greater detail.

Ok as far as I can tell, all the meet and greet parking is going on in one of two places, some parking companies are continuing to work out of the passenger drop off areas, however,they have to pay a premium to do this so that extra cost will obviously go onto the customers. The second location of meet and greet activity is the short stay car parks,orange one at the south and car park number 6 at the north. Cars have 15 minutes grace in the short stay car parks before they incur charges.
As for the cowboy rogue traders, well they are all still there.......well done Gatwick airport, you should be ashamed of yourself. The approved operator scheme is a pr stunt so they can rake in the cash from the short stay car parks.

andy66 wrote:

joeseptuk wrote:

How busy is the airport in the early morning, in July which I would say is peak time for holidays

My flight is Easyjet, 06:45 to Bologna. North terminal

So between check-in, and going through security, at this time in the morning 4am, is it quiet

Quiet is not really a word you can use to describe gatwick in the morning , to put it into context for you , from 05.35 to 06.50 , there are 25 departures in the North , today , so by the time you are ready to take off quite a few passengers will also have passed through security after checkin .
Don't worry too much though as security normally gets extremely busy at around 7am and you will have already passed through . If I was you I would aim to get at checkin as near to 4am as possible and you should have a reasonably smooth time , but don't be surprised that its not " quiet "

Well that's me back, and yes Andy66 Quiet is a word I would use for check-in, more like, where the f*** have all these holiday makers come from

My flight from Gatwick - Bologna, I left the hotel at 2:30 am, and went to check-in, and the queue must have been at least 6 long, must have taken me at least 30 min to check in

Security, kind of busy, so didn't need to wait that long, how ever my return flight to Glasgow, checked in my bags at 4pm, and head to go through security, it was a nightmare, I never seen security so busy like this, so at least I will know this for next year holidays

Hi Joe , glad everything went well for you , I did say it was busy in the mornings
As you say security is not too bad early in the morning , they do have a lot of crews in to deal with that , but that then means most of them knock off at 1 pm or 2 pm , they do have crews that start at 11 and 12 and work til late and it would probably be at around 4 pm that lunch breaks would happen so that might be why it was a bit busy at that time . They do have more staff covering the morning as that is when there is a higher volume of flights , and now with the extra flights and passengers because of the summer holidays its a balancing act of getting the levels right across the whole day .
It's not unusual now for the the NT to be getting 30,000 + on some days .

It tends to be busy after about 4am and quietens down around 9am.
The same is then repeated in the afternoon around 15hrs till 18hrs.
You can go there at 4am and the place is full, people are often surprised but its a 24 hour airport and only the take offs stop late at night and start again in the early hours.

Is there a smoking area in the south terminal please? If so,could you tell me where it is. Thanks.

Hi Minione , there is only a smoking area landside , before security , it is situated outside in front of the terminal building .
You can check in then go to the smoking area , but once you have gone through security and into the departure lounge then that's it !!

Thank you!

There is smoking shelters inbetween multi storey car parks at the north terminal passenger drop off area and at the south terminal there is smoking shelters at the far end of the coach stops.Upper forecourt.

hi all going up to Gatwick in dec by coach.flying with thompsons on Dreamliner so I assume its the north terminal !!!! we don't fly till next morning and have decided to stop overnight in hotel so anyone got any reccomendations as to the best hotel..not expensive or too far away that we need to pay out on taxi fare.
thanks mike

madasharley wrote:

hi all going up to Gatwick in dec by coach.flying with thompsons on Dreamliner so I assume its the north terminal !!!! we don't fly till next morning and have decided to stop overnight in hotel so anyone got any reccomendations as to the best hotel..not expensive or too far away that we need to pay out on taxi fare.
thanks mike

Thomson is north.
So too is Premier Inn and Sofitel.If you want to stay the night you might as well drive as the hotel will probably offer free parking.Try Gatwick Car Parkers website but use the hotel and parking quote form.

thanks Yorker looks like premier inn is the best for us. I think taking my own car this time will work out more expensive as we will need 21 nights parking and are traveling up from wales so petrol/toll bridge cost it just seems much cheaper going by national express ))