I am travelling from Manchester to Heathrow, arriving at 08:10 (on a Saturday morning) and need to get to Gatwick for my connecting flight at 11:20 to Orlando, is this possible? Taxi says it takes 56 minutes but I am worried that I will not have enough time to check-in.
thank you.
Regardless of whether that's one ticket or two separate ticket I would not book that connection. It's too tight.
It is tight but do able assuming it is all one ticket and, of course, first flight is on time. There is bus service between the two airports but don't know that timing.
Saturday morning means traffic may not be as bad as on a weekday. But check-in lines could be long at Gatwick. Perhaps others will know for sure, but AFAIK Gatwick doesn't have USA pre-clearance (which Dublin & Shannon, among others, do have). USA pre-clearance takes at least an extra half hour, sometimes more depending on crowds. And it is not optional: you can't elect to skip it and go through customs upon arrival in the USA instead.
Another factor is that you never know if your first flight could be delayed for any number of reasons. If both flights are on the same airline or airline partnership, you'd probably have a reasonable chance of getting the Gatwick-Orlando leg to accommodate you in case of a Manchester-Gatwick snafu that wasn't your fault. However, it's iffy.
No way. I would consider this if it was a flight Manchester to Gatwick, booked as one journey, so your bags are checked through and it is the airline's problem if the first flight is late, otherwise no hope.
Land Heathrow 08:10, out the front of the airport 45 mins later (with luck) = 08:55. 1 hour taxi (full fare, taxi from rank - ouch) = 09:55, if no problems on M25, big if. That leaves 1½ hours to get to the check in gate (~10 minutes), check in, passports, security and get to plane. What is minimum check in time, possibly 2 hours? No way.
Get train down the night before, from Manchester or wherever you are actually starting from, and overnight at Gatwick.
Check your airline rules, but most require a 3 hour check in for flights to the US, which means that you need to be at Gatwick at 8.20, so no, it's not possible. It you are flying down from Manchester, you need to get to London the night before, as what will you do if this flight is delayed by an hour or cancelled? The taxi fare will be more expensive than a night in a Gatwick hotel.
Gatwick isn't the quickest airport to get into. I was there 3 weeks ago at 4am and there were still queues!
The IATA minimum connection time on a single ticket between Heathrow and Gatwick is 2.5 hours. This hasn't changed for decades and no airline thinks it is remotely possible. Most won't book anything under 3.5 hours.
