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Changing Planes in Glasgow

Has anyone changed planes in Glasgow? I'm thinking of flying from Barra to Dublin. The layover in Glasgow is 2 hours. Is it doable? There are two later flights. One with a 2h 45m layover and the other with almost 6 hours. It would be separate tickets. Loganair and Aer Lingus apparently don't code share :-)

Posted by
5678 posts

It's a very good airport and not huge. Will you be checking luggage? That might be the only issue. If you are doing carry on I would think you would be okay. But somebody with recent experience re security might need to chime in.

Posted by
3119 posts

Flying from Glasgow to Dublin means changing countries, but because of the Irish border agreements the passport/immigration process is pretty simple. So if you're worried about being held up in a long immigration line, that should not be a problem.

A bigger concern is a delay (due to weather or equipment trouble) on your Barra-Glasgow flight. You'd have no control over that, and since it's two separate tickets you could get stuck having to pay for another ticket if you missed your Glasgow-Dublin flight.

Should you decide on the 6-hr layover to be safe, know that there are at least 3 hotels within easy walking distance of the Glasgow terminal where you could go have a cup of tea, put your feet up and read the papers. The Holiday Inn (as opposed to Holiday Inn Express) is very, very nice; it has a big lobby with common area furnished with comfortable chairs, and their cafe/restaurant has long hours for food service.

Posted by
1337 posts

Thanks for the advice. Weather is probably the biggest known unknown so I will plan accordingly. I know we’ll have to check bags. The Barra flight’s carry on limit is 6 kg. We’re light packers, but not that light.

Posted by
14812 posts

I flew Loganair last month. They are strict with carry ons because there is no space for them inside most of their planes.

Look to see what type of plane is being used GLA-DUB. If it's operated by Stobart Air then it will have a more restrictive carry on policy as well.

Glasgow is not a very big airport. As long as the first leg is not delayed, you should be okay.

If you have a US or Canadian passport you will go through immigration in Dublin. Only UK passport holders can just walk through. (It's an open border however going from Ireland TO the UK.)

Posted by
1337 posts

Thanks Frank II. I didn’t know about the passport check at Dublin. I assumed that the Irish-UK border arrangement eliminated that requirement in both directions.

Posted by
5311 posts

The UK and Ireland Governments have different views on the operation of the CTA. However, there is rarely any official checking done arriving in Ireland by ferry and of course none at all crossing the land border. It is more a question of Dublin Airport not wanting to segregate out a set of passengers.