Whilst I agree with the Second Runway at Gatwick Airport I do not necessarily support everything the owners have done with the Airport since taking over from BAA.
I grew up around the Airport as my Dad worked there for 30 years starting with a bottom of the run job for an Airline before working his way into management there and as a child we spent a lot of time at the Airport and considered it one of our favourite days out. The airport was a vibrant little place almost like a city of people not only flying away but also the people that worked at the Airport.
Gatwick use to house the Village in the South Terminal which had many shops and restaurants and in the North Terminal was The Avenue which had much the same layout and I used to love going there with my Dad. We would go for a McDonalds and then take the Monorail across to the South Terminal and go into Skyview on the roof to watch the Aircraft for a while or visit the Nose of the Comet or take the tour of the Aircraft that had been placed on the roof for visitors.
When I turned 16 I began working in one of the shops in the South Terminal Departure Lounge and when on breaks myself and other staff would visit some of the Restaurants & Shops or head up to Skyview for a coffee on a good clear day.
Since the sale of Gatwick Airport I regularly fly out from either terminal and I have to say I have now got to the point that I try to arrive as close to my flight as possible as simply they have very little in way of shops or restaurants that even remotely interest me and everything mentioned above is no longer there, a lot of the shops are to high brow for passengers on Budget or Holiday airlines and the airport seem to think they are Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
The simple fact of this is that with the rise of Budget Airlines and the death of Long Haul scheduled services from the Airport that the face of the airport has changed and I for one do not feel this is for the best. The face of this change stands outside the North Terminal as a constant reminder in the shape of the 700 bedroom Premier Inn just a few feet away from a Sofitel which when built was designed to cater for Business passengers as (to my mind away) Premier Inn are aimed at the Budget Traveller.
So I do not think the management are always right on the development of "Our Airport" but I genuinely hope that the Second Runway would bring back Scheduled services to compete with easyJet and hopefully see shops and restaurants reopen, I can only imagine whats going to happen moving forward with British Airways leaving the North Terminal (Ironically they have been ousted from the terminal built to serve them by easyJet) I am sure some of the expensive shops in the Departure Lounge will not be to happy about this.
One of my biggest annoyances is in the shape of the lack of being able to be collected from outside the terminals and people forced to park, this is an absolute joke every airport in the world I have visited has a collection point except for Gatwick which is clearly just out to pay for its new car parks!
I grew up around the Airport as my Dad worked there for 30 years starting with a bottom of the run job for an Airline before working his way into management there and as a child we spent a lot of time at the Airport and considered it one of our favourite days out. The airport was a vibrant little place almost like a city of people not only flying away but also the people that worked at the Airport.
Gatwick use to house the Village in the South Terminal which had many shops and restaurants and in the North Terminal was The Avenue which had much the same layout and I used to love going there with my Dad. We would go for a McDonalds and then take the Monorail across to the South Terminal and go into Skyview on the roof to watch the Aircraft for a while or visit the Nose of the Comet or take the tour of the Aircraft that had been placed on the roof for visitors.
When I turned 16 I began working in one of the shops in the South Terminal Departure Lounge and when on breaks myself and other staff would visit some of the Restaurants & Shops or head up to Skyview for a coffee on a good clear day.
Since the sale of Gatwick Airport I regularly fly out from either terminal and I have to say I have now got to the point that I try to arrive as close to my flight as possible as simply they have very little in way of shops or restaurants that even remotely interest me and everything mentioned above is no longer there, a lot of the shops are to high brow for passengers on Budget or Holiday airlines and the airport seem to think they are Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
The simple fact of this is that with the rise of Budget Airlines and the death of Long Haul scheduled services from the Airport that the face of the airport has changed and I for one do not feel this is for the best. The face of this change stands outside the North Terminal as a constant reminder in the shape of the 700 bedroom Premier Inn just a few feet away from a Sofitel which when built was designed to cater for Business passengers as (to my mind away) Premier Inn are aimed at the Budget Traveller.
So I do not think the management are always right on the development of "Our Airport" but I genuinely hope that the Second Runway would bring back Scheduled services to compete with easyJet and hopefully see shops and restaurants reopen, I can only imagine whats going to happen moving forward with British Airways leaving the North Terminal (Ironically they have been ousted from the terminal built to serve them by easyJet) I am sure some of the expensive shops in the Departure Lounge will not be to happy about this.
One of my biggest annoyances is in the shape of the lack of being able to be collected from outside the terminals and people forced to park, this is an absolute joke every airport in the world I have visited has a collection point except for Gatwick which is clearly just out to pay for its new car parks!
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