I assume you are there the night before, check your bags in when you arrive which will make it much easier for you in the morning, I've never found Gatwick quiet at any time.

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 "

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 "

Thanks, cant wait for next week, flying out from Glasgow - Gatwick, afternoon flight so airport bound to be very busy, and up here in Glasgow schools are finished, and were into the fair holidays

Hi Joe, as David said you can check your hold luggage in the day before if this is convenient to you , as you fly before 08.30 you can checkin from 20.00 until midnight , it might save you time , an extra lie in !!!
The schools down south don't usually finish for at least another couple of weeks so it shouldn't be too manic !!
Have good flights and holiday .

Taking photographs

Are Gatwick Airport, ok with holiday makers taking photographs, never had any issues with this at Manchester Airport

joeseptuk,

As long as you aren't taking photos at security sensitive areas and you avoid taking photos of people (without thei consent), you should be fine. Bear in mind you are on private property so if anyone does ask you to stop taking photos, you should.

Darren

It will be chaos I can assure you.
Allow for Police checks too as they cause delays as you try to enter.
Scroll down this page and it will show you two videos of how to drive straight to the passenger drop off zone
gatwickcarparkers.com/news

and watch out for the traffic wardens,you are allowed to load and unload a car but not wait.

I think that joeseptuk is flying down from Glasgow the afternoon before his early morning departure the next day , so hopefully he won't experience the chaos , police checks and traffic wardens unless he's bringing a car with him .
I fly from LGW quite a lot , and haven't experienced chaos on the roads around the airport ( clacketts lane YES ) never been stopped for a police check , they have CCTV on the motorways leading to the airport , so have the necessary intelligence of who they want to check or stop , and never had an undue harassment from a traffic warden or yellow clad person about stopping to drop off , or driving around to pick up/ load up .

Your website does have a vast amount of good information , and the tip of using McDonald's to park up ( for only a few minutes ) if waiting to go around to make a pick up of a friend etc is handy , contact by mobile when they are ready and waiting and then drive round , many local taxis are often parked in there , which either suggests the taxi drivers don't want to pay the exorbitant short stay car park fees or have a terrible diet .

Hi Andy,

Re: parking up in McDonalds ... that is what my husband did a couple of weeks ago while waiting for a call from our son to pick him up from the terminal. Picked up a bit of breakfast and ate it in the car while he waited for phone call.

It's a good idea if you're picking up a friend/relative , have been known to indulge myself with a strawberry milkshake when doing the same

Yep, and cheaper than paying their parking fees

Re: parking up in McDonalds ... that is what my husband did a couple of weeks ago while waiting for a call from our son to pick him up from the terminal. Picked up a bit of breakfast and ate it in the car while he waited for phone call

It's a good idea if you're picking up a friend/relative , have been known to indulge myself with a strawberry milkshake when doing the same

Thats made me laugh because last time we were sat in Mcdonalds after arriving back from Egypt i said to Dave "theres a lot of blokes on their own in here".. thinking they were all out for a good night at Gatwick airport MC'y D,s .. I couldnt quite understand the attraction .He did look at me with that "got a thick one here" look before saying " of course ,they are all cab drivers.

LOL Lyn ... that would be the type of comment I would come out with too:)

I know , a couple of years ago , I did park up to meet my sister and it was around £6.50 for less than 30 mins , my brother picked us up from London City last weekend and it was £10 for 30 mins
Yep , the free parking is the attraction , I don't think all the blokes were there to " take the dog for a walk"

Lyn ... reminds me a time when hubby and I were passing a fruit/veg shop. About the shop it read '174 fruit and veg' I asked my hubby how do they know they sell 174 different typs of fruit and veg ... turns out the '174' was the number of the road!! Talk about feeling stupid lol!!

Lyn .. think hubby paid £12/13 for 1.5 parking 3 weeks ago when we took our son down to Gatwick .... said 'no way am I paying that to pick him up' .. hence McD's car park for free!

Gatwick is a bit naughty with the short stay parking especially at the south terminal, as first of all the sign says 'passenger pick up', which takes you into (short stay)paid parking,however,100 meters down the road you have the actual 'passenger drop off area',which is totally free and as you can drop off there, then you can certainly pick up as well.
Secondly,the parking payment machines are covertly located on the second floor, so one can spend 15 minutes trying to find them before realising you can also pay on the way out.
My advice is to avoid the short stay car parks completely. Use the passenger drop off areas, if you get moved on by traffic wardens,then just go around the circuit again, or like you say, grab a burger at Macdonalds....simples.

Lol at all this.

Hubby dropped son and his mate at Gatwick yesterday morning at stupid o'clock he just kind of let them leap out of the car and carried on driving
At least we now have a plan if we need to collect anyone, £13 for an hour pat

Im glad Im not the only one thats a bit slow to catch on !! ... whoosh !

so a sort of lean over , open the doors and shove lads & bags out whilst still driving Chris.