Hi all!
My mom and I may be traveling through Gatwick on the way to Vienna in May. The flight I was looking at lands in Gatwick at 5:25 am in one terminal, and the best flight to Vienna leaves at 6:55 am from the other terminal. Is 90 minutes enough time to make a connection at Gatwick? I have never flown through there, so your thoughts are valuable. Thank you!!!
Single booking, or 2 separate tickets?
The terminals are connected via a shuttle which takes less than a minute to travel between the two terminals.
The important question is whether the flight is on one ticket or not. Will you have checked luggage that requires collecting from one flight and checking in for the other?
The flight from the USA to Gatwick is Norwegian and the flight to VIE is from Easy jet. The plan is to only have a carry ons for the two of us. So we would change airlines, but hopefully not go through customs.
https://www.gatwickairport.com/at-the-airport/flying-in/flight-connections/
Scroll down and note the highlighted notice that easyjet passengers MUST go through passport control. I believe easyjet closes the boarding door 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time
The odds of making it, in my view, are no better than the 'famous snowball in .....' Do you really want to spend your 7+ hr flight on edge wondering 'will I make it?''
Sure hope you are still in the planning stages and have not purchased the 2nd ticket.
Don't do it. You won't make it. If your first flight is at all late then it's even worse. A safe window time to connect is 3-4 hours.
I have a similar situation, for travel in May I booked Norwegian Mia-LGW,(south terminal) I had 8 hours until my next flight to Crete (north terminal). No problem until Easy Jet just informed me my flight was canceled and I've been rebooked on a earlier flight - now I have 5 hours (arrival 5:50am Saturday) We plan to carry on, but easy jet has different allowances so we may have to check our baggage ( I purchased the flight w/ luggage just in case)
So JC, Joe and Anita - Do you think this is enough time? How long is immigration? I cant find any info on the likelihood of my flight being delayed and I have read that in LGW the plans can land but the gate is not ready and you can stay on the runway for a hour.
If it isn't enough time how do I cancel/change to a later time my flight? I have scoured the easy jet website and I can not find a way to get in touch with them or talk to a person.
I've never had to wait on the tarmac at Gatwick for a stand. I've never heard of anyone waiting for an hour, not to say that it's not possible but it's not something I've heard of.
Immigration is quick and easy if you're a US citizen as you can use the e-gates (unless you're accompanied by anyone under 12), the time it takes to get through these is seconds however your wait time is dictated by the queues waiting to use them. Sometimes I've landed and walked straight through without queueing whereas other times I've had a wait of no more than five minutes. The biggest factor affecting timings is the number of flights that land around the same time and where the passengers are disembarking (will you all meet at the arrivals hall at the same time or will some passengers have a longer transit time than you).
You will have to go through security prior to departure if collecting luggage. This typically is no longer than 20 minutes.
There is no passport control departing the UK other than the brief passport and boarding pass check at the boarding gate.
Would I be comfortable with five hours? Personally no but that's because I'm highly risk averse and my PTSD would go into overdrive but other people would be content I'm sure.
