Not really. Apparently it is the 5th busiest airport in the London area with 4.5 million passengers (2017) according to Wikipedia. Compared to 61 million for Heathrow.
It's a peculiar airport in general because it's right in the middle of the old docklands on a bit of reclaimed land and only relatively small jets can land there. Unlike the other London airports which are all miles outside central London and serve all sizes of planes.
Fun fact - it's the only major airport in the world that doesn't have a control tower on site (to save space). It is remote controlled from 80 miles away.
In Berlin at BER I had someone from security straight up tell me that water being sold at a premium after security, with a profit for the airport shops that pay hefty rents, is the only reason for keeping up the 100ml liquids rule. That was a heated discussion point for a while, since the airport had to stop people from drinking tap water inside because of an e.coli infestation in the water system of the airport. We'…
I really don't get the BER hate. It's not only a huge improvement over SXF and TXL (minus T1 at TXL, RIP turning up 10 minutes before boarding), but it's a perfectly good airport in its own right. The building of it and the budget overrun was a disaster, and demonstrated the worst of infrastructure building in this country, but will happily die on the hill that the result is good, actually. (If we want to get into co…
Fair, not the worst in the world, that was hyperbole.
Yet, it’s absolutely not an airport that’s fit for the capital of one of the most powerful countries in the world.
It’s still too small and can’t handle capacity properly, meaning that a lot of routes that existed before have never been reinstated.
A lot has to do with Lufthansa refusing to invest in any direct route from there, which is clearly some political issue, not a design issue but still.
Take this little detail: it’s the only major EU capital airport where no lounge has any deal whatsoever with Priority Pass.
Sounds like a first world problem, I know, but it clearly indicates how they can’t manage even the most basic deals with aviation partners, more than two year after opening…
I flew yesterday and in the plane realized I had some water from my daughter in the backpack. It was scanned and missed of course. And why wouldn't they miss it, it's a waste of time anyway. But at least they harassed a 3-year old to stand in a certain way to get scanned and fail at it. Unrelated, but I've come to believe it's a form of social welfare. So much policing for nothing, not just airports, wars on drugs et…
It’s common for airports to allow liquids for babies/toddlers. Just take them out of the bag and put them in a padded box normally. No 100ml limit either- have taken regular water bottles through too (for milk formula). Various airports have different rules. Dubai was quite lax, you don’t have to take anything out of bags. Maybe they have the new scanners already. Singapore was more strict, and they do the security c…
Depends maybe on the airport but flying out of San Diego, they pulled a bag of breast milk from my girlfriends bag and tested the liquid inside. They allowed the larger size through but still did scrutinize the actual liquid.
While flying itself is quite fun - nothing beats finding weird tchotchkes in the duty free shop - thinking about airport security gives me existential dread. I think it is great that British airports are relaxing their rules, but until that applies to the whole world, I will still arrive 2-3 hours before departure, knowing how unpredictable the situation at some airport security checkpoint can be. It is almost as if…
in laos they make you security check for the high speed trains as well as needing passport photos of you upfront for your tickets. Same regulations as air travel with deodorant, knives and stuff like that, it is super ridiculous
It’s common for airports to allow liquids for babies/toddlers. Just take them out of the bag and put them in a padded box normally. No 100ml limit either- have taken regular water bottles through too (for milk formula). Various airports have different rules. Dubai was quite lax, you don’t have to take anything out of bags. Maybe they have the new scanners already. Singapore was more strict, and they do the security c…
Ugh, don't remind me of Singapore. Transferring after a flight from London, I see a water bottle refill fountain, which I use. We're running late, so I head straight to the gate...and then have to immediately dispose of my newly filled 2L water bottle. I've never known another airport to have this security setup, and as a massive transit hub, I really can't make sense of why they chose to put it at that point - but t…
One benefit of distributed checks is that they are more predictable: doesn't matter how busy or not the rest of the airport is, your queue length doesn't change. TXL had that setup (independent security for a pair of gates each) for the older areas and leaving from those terminals was really fast and reliable. Sure, duty-free was tiny then (since also only for a pair of gates), but that never really mattered to me.
I guess for a hub like Singapore it might also make it easier to adjust checks done for different destinations?
Recently at Stansted I had an encounter with a security staff member who was of the opinion that both clotted cream and butter were liquids. (Note, I wasn't the one trying to get either of these onto the plane.) Her entire argument seemed to rest on the case that they were spreadable. I don't think she did well in GCSE physics.
It's always been "liquids and gels" when the instructions are given in full. Toothpaste is the more obvious case.
I really don't get the BER hate. It's not only a huge improvement over SXF and TXL (minus T1 at TXL, RIP turning up 10 minutes before boarding), but it's a perfectly good airport in its own right. The building of it and the budget overrun was a disaster, and demonstrated the worst of infrastructure building in this country, but will happily die on the hill that the result is good, actually. (If we want to get into co…
Fair, not the worst in the world, that was hyperbole. Yet, it’s absolutely not an airport that’s fit for the capital of one of the most powerful countries in the world. It’s still too small and can’t handle capacity properly, meaning that a lot of routes that existed before have never been reinstated. A lot has to do with Lufthansa refusing to invest in any direct route from there, which is clearly some political iss…
Brussels has no priority pass lounge, nor one of the large Heathrow terminals.
In Berlin at BER I had someone from security straight up tell me that water being sold at a premium after security, with a profit for the airport shops that pay hefty rents, is the only reason for keeping up the 100ml liquids rule. That was a heated discussion point for a while, since the airport had to stop people from drinking tap water inside because of an e.coli infestation in the water system of the airport. We'…
Full knowledge of the threat from liquids probably requires a high level of security clearance. I wouldn't expect security at the airport to be aware.
I recently went through Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands and it blew my mind that I could bring water with me, and the security guy didn't even open my backpack, he just rotated and zoomed around a "hologram" of it in 3D on a computer.
I'll have to remember this. I moved here recently and wasn't sure so I packed similarly to how I would in the US.
One of the few great benefits of going through Ben Gurion Airport in TelAviv is that due to their alternative approach to security (and profiling) noone gives a damn about your liquids. Want to go through the scanner holding a super gulp with a bag full of liquids? Go right ahead.
First rule at Ben Gurion is "don't be Arab" though. So maybe their "alternative approach" works for you, but it does have some downsides.
I hear that's also true for US Airports, yet I still have to take off my shoes there and shove no more than 100ml of liquids into a transparent bag.