Join us for MyLondon's Airport Issue all day Friday, July 1 to experience exactly what is happening inside London's biggest airports
Travelling back to London from Airports across Europe is as much of a mixed bag as getting out of London in the first place, a MyLondon experiment is finding, with some trips through check-in and security across the continent as quick as a flash, others painfully slow.
To find out just what is happening in our airports and on board airlines, today (Friday, July 1) MyLondon sent reporters to the city's four largest airports to experience first hand the challenges that passengers and staff face. We've flown with easyJet, Ryanair and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for MyLondon's Airport Issue.
It's been a mix of experiences with chaotic queues at Stansted, online check-in issues at Luton and Stansted, and problems with the x-ray equipment at Luton's security. However all our journeys out of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton have seen only minor delays despite all that.
At the other end of the journeys though there were some major issues at Dublin, Paris, and Amsterdam airports. Piles of baggage could be seen in the terminals with passengers told to sift through to check if theirs had made it, while there were huge queues for security checks in Amsterdam, and for taxis at Dublin Airport.
The queue for border control in Paris took so long that our reporter nearly missed her flight, and our flight back from Dublin is delayed by 45 minutes. Elsewhere, our reporter travelling back from Amsterdam has been left sitting on a stationary plane for at least half an hour.
Our reporters have been reviewing airline food, trying airport dining options and exploring how Europe's transport systems and shopping options compare to London's as part of the experiment, with all four now making their way home, with once again differing levels of difficulty.
See our blog below for a blow-by-blow account of our trips through London's airports and on flights out of the capital.
Are you flying out of a London airport today? Let us know about your experience by emailing mylondonnewsdesk@reachplc.com.
Thanks so much for following our liveblog today. Check back tomorrow for more updates from our roving reporters and for more great content from their travels abroad.
Ryanair staff said in an announcement tonight on Lea's flight that they were suffering along with their passengers amid the delays.
Read the full story below.
Our final reporter to make it home tonight has finally boarded his plane from Dublin after being delayed one hours 10 mins. He tells us that he doubts the plane will get in the air for at least another 45 minutes.
Unfortunately for Lea in Milan Malpensa airport, she has just been told they will remain an hour behind schedule.
Cabin crew announced: "Unfortunately our air flight control situation remains the same. We will be about one hour delayed."
The cabin crew on Lea's flight from Milan Malpensa to London made an announcement apologising for the delay and blaming it on air traffic control.
They said: "We’ll be leaving in about 20 minutes and we apologise. This is our fourth flight of the day and we are suffering with you. We’ve been the unfortunate victims of air traffic control on all our flights today. The captain is currently on the phone to them. Flight time was scheduled for two hours but he hates being delayed as much as you so he’ll step on it."
Amber has landed in Heathrow and Lucy is up in the air, but Lea and Finn are experiencing delays.
Lea in Milan Malpensa has already been delayed an hour. She is now on the plane, but boarding is not yet finished.
Finn in Dublin has already been delayed 45 minutes and has just been told there will be a further delay of half an hour.
Although she took off with no delays from Amsterdam Schiphol, Amber has now been stuck on the plane after landing for 20 minutes and passengers were just told the wait would be another 15 minutes.
Air hostess, Niamh O’Leary, told Finn on his flight from Dublin to London that queues at Dublin airport had only recently died down after the airline was "bogged down by staff shortages" due to Covid, but that passengers weren't sympathetic.
Niamh said: "Myself and colleagues included just kept on testing positive for covid. People don’t understand that airport staff are just like other people in jobs. We have suffered because of coronavirus and become the people everyone abuses because it’s interrupting their holiday.
"It’s interrupting our lives as well. A holiday is the only thing people are thinking about when they come to the airport but there are bigger things. Hospitals have the same problems and no one abuses them for getting a virus that you can’t avoid."
Lucy only just made her flight from Paris back to London after long queues at border control.
She said it was "the slowest moving queue ever as they only had one kiosk open" and it took her around 45 minutes.
Unfortunately Lucy thinks the people who were behind her in the queue will have missed their flight.
After flying through security, Finn's flight back to Luton has been delayed by 45 minutes.
A quick look at the departure board at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport for Lucy doesn't make for comfortable reading as nearly every flight is either delayed or cancelled, with destinations like Prague, Zagreb, Oslo, and Minorca all affected.
After a painful 40 minute wait at Stansted in which she was forced to dish out an extra £55 to Ryanair due to online check in errors, Lea breezed through security at Malpensa just now in four minutes and 59 seconds exactly!
Amber's flight home from Schiphol Airport is now boarding along with notifications that the flight is full and that hand luggage should be checked.
Looking around the departure lounge Amber can see for herself how full the flight is going to be with the room near capacity.
Our reporters at Dublin and Milan Malpensa airports got through security in mere minutes.
Finn took just two minutes to pass through security at Dublin and said it was "literally the easiest I've ever gone through".
Lea said hers took just under five minutes at Malpensa.
It may not be much solace to UK travellers facing cancelled flights and missed holidays, but the frustration of unpredictable air travel is being shared by flyers across Europe at the moment.
Having just arrived back at Malpensa Airport near Milan, Lea has spotted cancelled flights to Munich, Napoli, and Amsterdam, while a flight for Copenhagen has travellers queuing in a line so long it won't fit in a single picture.
Beginning his journey home from Dublin now, Finn has just breezed through security at the city's airport in just two minutes, describing it as "the easiest security I've ever been through."
This shows up London Luton Airport, where earlier today Finn faced a 20 minute wait due to "malfunctions with the X-Ray" leading to lots of trays containing people's possessions "wrongly being sent to be checked" by staff and causing delays.
Our reporters today found the long queues and baggage issues aren't unique to Heathrow. Queues for security at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam were hours' long and in Dublin travellers found their bags randomly dumped at baggage reclaim.
For our full story on this read more here.
After the stress of going through airport security for the second time in a day Amber's eyes lit up at the sight of the duty free in Amsterdam.
Luck really isn't on Amber's side today. After a long wait to get through security at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport she went to treat herself to a McDonald's but then get stuck in another "excruciatingly long" queue for 30 minutes. Hopefully the meal is worth it!
Aer Lingus has cancelled nine return flights and one direct flight today, according to Joe.
The airline has cited a spike in Covid cases among staff as an issue and has apologised for the disruption.
Amber is finally through security at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and it has taken an hour and 45 minutes. Not fun.
There are 13 flights that have been cancelled from Dublin Airport today
It pays to be prepared and one woman in those horrendous Amsterdam security queues has shown how. Amber says:
One woman in this queue is just binge watching Love Island; must have downloaded episodes - a prepared queen."
We're joking about this on the WhatsApp group but Amber's experience versus Lucy's right now shows just how much a game of roulette international travel is at the moment.
While Amber is stuck in a horrendous queue after having to be at the airport in Amsterdam four hours before her flight departs, Lucy is currently having a coffee with Remy the rat of Ratatouille fame in Paris, while writing a feature. Meanwhile Lea is having a burger with pancetta on it in Milan.
Finn was fortunate to get his bag after dozens of other passengers at Dublin were told to sift through a pile to find theirs.
While the trips out of London have been relatively smooth, aside from a few issues, it seems to be at the other end that the most serious problems are occurring today. As well as the lenghty queues for taxis and people being told to sif through piles of bags in Dublin, there are huge issues with the security checks at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
Amber is there at the moment and says it's expected to take about two hours just to get through security. It's been 25 minutes and she is just about in the door to the security room, where the queue is meant to start.
The unprecendented chaos we've seen at airports around London lately could well be just a taste of what is still to come this summer as British Airways check-in staff will be striking.
While it will undoubtedly cause problems for travellers, a new opinion poll has shown support for BA staff involved in a pay dispute. Trade union Unite maintains its members, more than 500 check-in staff based at Heathrow, are between £3,500- £5,000 worse off since BA cut their pay by 10 per cent during the pandemic.
Unite said a survey of more than 1,000 members of the public found three out of five respondents said a strike to restore pay levels was justified. No dates for the strike have been announced yet.
A BA spokesperson said: “We’re extremely disappointed with the (ballot) result and that the unions have chosen to take this course of action. Despite the extremely challenging environment and losses of more than £4 billion, we made an offer of a 10 per cent payment which was accepted by the majority of other colleagues.
“We are fully committed to work together to find a solution, because to deliver for our customers and rebuild our business we have to work as a team. We will of course keep our customers updated about what this means for them as the situation evolves.”
The taxi queue is longer than immigration at Dublin Airport. Michael Bryan, 26, said:
It's a joke man. The taxis queue is ridiculous. We've been here for a good half hour and got nowhere. The buses are s*** so we can't even get a bus into the centre.
It leaves everyone without a car stuck because all coaches and buses are booked months in advance. Everyone is forced to wait in this line. I'm annoyed because I'll miss my niece's birthday but I've spoken to English people who don't actually mind the queues because airports in England seem to be ok today."
Finn has come across several areas where bags appear to have been dumped and people say they have no idea if theirs has arrived in Dublin or not. People have been told to look through the piles themselves. Anita Murphy, an Irish woman living in London, 62, told him:
I thought my baagge problems would end in England but this is much worse. People have been told to just look through all the bags left out. There are hundreds and I don't move the best. No one's helped me find my bag. It's lost I think but lost in another country or here in all these bags is another question."
Amber says there are very long queues for security at Amsterdam's airport with the queue going out of the terminal doors. Passengers are advised to get there four hours before their flights, hence Amber is hanging around in the terminal ahead of her flight back.
The Ryanair flight from Luton to Dublin has landed and Finn is now on the Emerald Isle, pretty much on time. No real issues getting there despite the problems with online check-in and the x-ray equipment at Luton's security. It's time for him to grab that all-important Guinness at its source.