The best of the London airports (London City Airport (LCY))

Member Name: PARIS73

Product:	London City Airport (LCY)
Date:	02/05/08 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very fast

Disadvantages: No business lounge

Flying out or into London is not pleasant. I have Heathrow, and also the regional airports are surely not a pleasant experience. When I fly on business, I try to go via Gatwick as opposed to Heathrow, whenever possible. However, City airport is a different experience and is surely my favourite airport.

It is called City Airport, but it is not exactly in the City of Lonodn. IT IS LOCATED IN Docklands and now that I am working at Canary Warf, it is a no brainer that this is by far the closest airport to my office.

CHECK IN

Once you arrive at the airport, you will find that there is only 1 terminal, you walk through the glass doors and you are in the check in area. The check in desks will be on your right, you cannot miss them. I have so far gone to Amsterdam, Stockholm and Geneve and each time the queue was no more than 10 minutes. I fly in business, but even in economy, there were not many people waiting. Once you have your boarding card you take the stairs and go upstairs to security

SECURITY CONTROL

One of the things I hate at Stanstead airport is the tight security and the time you spend waiting to be cleared. Heathrow is none the better either. A different story all together at City. 5 minutes waiting and you are done. Staff are also much more friendlier than those at Stanstead.

DEPARTURE LOUNGES

I have noticed that City is becoming more and more popular, as a result, it is now possible that the sitting area will be crowded. There are few places where you can buy snacks, drinks and duty free. There is also a Travelex Bureau if you need to change money, I have used it once and will not do it anymore since the exchange rate was a ripoff.

There is no business lounge at City.

LANDING AT CITY

Once you land (on your way back!) you will normally walk no more than 200 yards towards passport control. No need to train for the marathon, like at Gatwick or Heathrow, where some time you walk for ages!

LUGGAGE

On one occasion only, with Swiss, we had to wait for a long time for our luggage to go through.

CAR RENTAL

I have not used them, but I saw desks of Hertz, Avis.

CONCLUSION.

If you can fly from City, and as long as you are not located at the other end of London, this is the best of the London airports.

Summary: My favourite airport in London