My bag beat me to departures (Coventry Airport (CVT))

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Coventry Airport (CVT)
Date:	29/05/07 (242 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Speed of getting out of the airport from your plane

Disadvantages: Lack of facilities if delayed

A trip to the airport is an exciting event, not only are you about to embark on a trip to somewhere exotic but an airport is crammed full of great shopping opportunities and people gathered from all over the world dressed in a variety of bright outfits and speaking many languages, well at Coventry airport you get none of this however I did meet a couple from Stoke in the queue at check in.

What Coventry does offer though is something far more important, in the time it will have taken me to write this review you could have left your plane, passed through passport control, collected your luggage, smuggled your illegal contraband through the green channel and be on your way to your car, yes the great thing about Coventry is the speed at which you can be out of the airport and on your way home once you have landed. In fact as we were walking across the tarmac to the arrivals section we could actually see our luggage coming down the chute to be loaded onto the baggage vehicle for the twenty five metre drive to the baggage reclaim section. It is not all positives but for me this is one very big one and more than makes up for the deficiencies in other areas.

Getting There

Now this may come as a surprise but the airport is located in Coventry and is beautifully appointed just off the A45 and is really well signposted. From the M1 it is about a thirty minute drive along the M45 if you are coming from the south and if from the north you will probably get onto the M69 at Leicester. It is well signposted on all approaches however you do have to have complete faith in the signs as it is located on an industrial estate and to be honest it is pretty well hidden so it is only in the last couple of hundred metres that you are actually convinced that you are heading for an airport.

For those travelling by train it is a ten minute taxi journey to the airport or you can catch the Airport Express from outside the terminal.

Car Parking

Entry to the airport is through a controlled barrier and cars are allowed 15 minutes to drop off passengers free of charge and there is a pull in area to do this. Be aware that if you are being collected from the airport then the same fifteen minute rule applies and on the night of our return the jobs worth on the gate was rather abrupt with my father when he told him about this implying that he would enforce charges if my father over stayed his allotted time, he was not quite so abrupt when my father informed him just where he would insert his barrier if it was not raised upon his return but then he is a scary man, just ask his probation officer, one eyed Jim.

The car par itself is right opposite the departures / arrivals building and can be booked at least 24 hours in advance by phone or online. We did not need to use it as one of the great things about this airport is said angry Dad and not so angry Mum live about twenty minutes away and are able to drop off and pick up which is a good saving for us. The car park costs £41 for seven days if you pre-book and is about £5 cheaper if you book four weeks in advance.

Facilities

To put it bluntly there are not many, if you have not already got the gist from earlier comments this is a small airport, the only company to use it are Thomsonfly (read my last review for details) and they use it to reach fourteen European destinations the furthest being in Poland.

The one downside to this airport is that you would not want to be caught up in any flight delays as there is nothing to do at all. Forget the idea of a wide choice of eating establishments all you have is a single café called Max Beans which I in the pre check in area and run by a nice lady called Beryl (I don’t actually know her name and in fact she looked nothing like a Beryl, too young but it helps create the idea that it is a small operation) which closed promptly ten minutes after our plane landed leaving us to stand on the curb in the cold night air waiting for our lift to arrive. After check in there is another small snack bar serving light refreshments and alcohol and if you want to take a drink on board this is the place to buy it. There is also a small shop but if you blink you will miss it.

On the plus side the toilets were clean and there are no steps for those in a wheelchair or unsteady on their feet to have to navigate. There looks to be just enough seating for a plane load of passengers which is fine for the small number of well spaced flights they cater for but would be a worry if there were delays. There is also a money exchange office within the building.

Now when I say building to be honest you could just as easily say pre-fabricated huts, in fact it sort of reminded me of a number of those temporary classrooms you see at schools thrown together into a building, the airport buildings are actually a temporary solution at present and there are plans to build something more substantial and in keeping with the name of a Coventry International Airport but from what I can gather gaining planning approval does not seem to be straight forward.

Despite the lack of facilities the airport does run efficiently, all of the staff was very pleasant and the security guard who searched our baggage had a great sense of humour and totally wound the kids up. The airport ran on time and the planes departed promptly and to be honest the smooth way in which us and our luggage were processed on the return leg was so good that when I next want to fly to any of the destinations served by Coventry I will almost certainly book. Even if the flight was a little more expensive compared with other airports (which in this case it was not), the saving on not having to pay parking and the relatively short journey time from Northampton helps to offset the cost and also the sheer lack of hassle with using this airport helps make the holiday a whole lot more relaxing. So effiecient is it that when we reached the baggage reclaim area so our bag was just starting its first circuit of the conveyor belt. Now that can't be bad.

Certainly an airport to consider if flying Thomson to one of the fourteen destinations covered.

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: Great small regional airport