Improvements being made at Gatwick Airport

A recent article in a Sunday newspaper began:

“I hate Gatwick Airport. If you want a picture of misery in life, you couldn’t do much better than the South Terminal’s departure lounge on an August weekend — a windowless netherworld crammed with hard-sell shops, overpriced fast food, hideous artificial light and endless din. Waiting for a flight there is like being held onremand at your local Arndale.”

Gatwick is the UK ’s busiest holiday airport — of its 33 million passengers last year, 28m were off on their holidays — is also one of its most disliked. Common complaints include surly staff, long queues, a building site for an arrivals hall and general dinginess.

As one recent user put it: “Gatwick is a third-world airport, shabby, cluttered and falling apart.”

The last straw for many was when management ripped out the small children’s play area. What sort of people process millions of children a year and don’t bother to provide a single place for them to play? A word comes to mind, and you wouldn’t use it when the kids are listening.

So, when a colleague got back from a trip to Mumbai last week and raved about the airport’s family-friendliness, attentive service and smooth efficiency, it was clear something was up. “Gatwick — efficient”? It’s a bit like “Simon Cowell — humble”.

Gatwick Airport – Part of the Holiday

The idea is to change Gatwick Airport into a place that’s part of the holiday, rather than an ordeal to be got through

There is an explanation. The airport changed hands in December, and the new owners — a consortium including, bizarrely, the South Korean national pension fund — have launched a charm offensive. There’s a corporate rebranding, a smiley PR drive, a new chief executive (the irrepressibly upbeat Stewart Wingate, previously boss at Stansted) and, most important, a £1 billion investment plan. The idea is to change the place into somewhere that’s part of the holiday, rather than an ordeal to be got through before it starts. So, how much of this is hype (or one family’s lucky experience) and how much will make a real difference? Last week, I went for a snoop around to find out. Eight months in, it’s mainly small adjustments so far, but they’re making a big difference.

For families at the summer peak, the dedicated Assistance Lane through security is a godsend — attentive staff who’ll lend a hand with the pushchairs and kid about with the children, rather than the stony-faced gorgons we’re used to, and no tutting businessmen jostling behind. It’s helped to cut queues in the rest of security, too — 95% of all passengers are now through in less than five minutes. And the new monorail transit between terminals, which opened last month (the old one had travelled enough miles to go to the moon and back — five times), is whizzier than ever.

There’s also more attention to detail. The airport was a maze of superfluous signs offering hotels, cheap airport car hire and currency exchange: they’re ripping out 500 of them and revamping the remaining ones in clearer colours, which is already making it easier to find your way around. Departure-lounge screens now show the gate opening time, so you’re not taken by surprise when “now boarding” pops up. And until recently, the only breakfast to be had at the North Terminal — used for many early-morning flights — was at Yo! Sushi. Now at least you can get some toast.

As well as all that, they’re making valiant efforts to add a touch of glamour — “Putting some theatre into the place,” as Wingate puts it. Hence the Gatwick Glow, a spray-tan booth for those who don’t want to turn up on the beach looking pasty; the recent Gatwick Factor talent show (the mind boggles); and the current Gatwick Fashion Week, with Lily Cole choosing the winning Gatwick Runway Model.

Which is great, but most people just want to get on a plane, please, and a lot of the old problems remain. For instance, as I stand in departures, there’s an enormous snaking queue of disgruntled passengers coiled in front of the EasyJet check-in desks. What’s the airport going to do about that?

When I ask Wingate, he says he’s got a plan. “We’re trialling a system where you print out your baggage tags at the same kiosks you use to print a boarding card. It’s reliant on the airlines taking it up, but by 2012 you should be able to just hand your bag in at any desk — not just your airline’s — and go straight to security.” In theory, that’ll mean no face-to-face check-in at all, so no queues. In theory.

The check-in hall’s oppressive, lightless atmosphere? Wingate has a plan for that, too. “We’re taking out the black floors, which make it so gloomy, and putting in new cream tiles. And,” he adds, like a proud home-owner clutching a copy of Elle Decoration, “we’re putting in uplighting.” Get him. The tatty disgrace of an arrivals hall is also being upgraded.

Airport shopping

Has he got a plan to rein back the endless zillions of shops — sorry, “exciting retail opportunities”? Er, no.

“People want a quality shopping experience that suits their needs,” he says, morphing smoothly from proud homeowner to slick salesman. As income from shops makes up half the airport’s revenue.  Traditionally departing passsengers have been keen to arrange last minute delivery of flowers, send gifts, buy sun creams and of course browse the latest fashions for high street retailers. There have been rumours that Marks & Spencer could open specialist stores including their ranges latest fashion dresses and ladies underwear and lingerie.

To his credit, a few shops have been ripped out to create a huge new security area that will come on stream for next summer, an effort to cut queueing further. The new upstairs extension to that godawful South Terminal departure lounge is a bit of a letdown, though — a few more seats, a bit less clutter, but still windowless and oppressive.

Gatwick’s never going to be somewhere you’d want to take a holiday in, but it is starting to be somewhere you’d want to take a holiday from. Give it a year or two, and it could even be a pleasure to use. Just one thingniggles. There are no current plans to give kids anywhere to play. Although one staffer pointed out, play areas do exist at Gatwick — in the premium-access lounges. Playtime’s just for posh families.