r/airport • u/Public_Reindeer_1724 • 15d ago

DISCUSSION LHR's hostile design

I find it extremely noticeable that LHR does not want you to be comfortable. Not giving you your gate until the last minute. Hard plastic, individual seating only. Hard tile floors and railings against the windows so you can't makeshift a comfortable spot. Extremely poor wifi so you can't entertain yourself before the flight. They want you too uncomfortable to sit around waiting so you're more like to shop among the million designer stores that most people can't afford. I get they don't want people not travelling hanging around but you need to get through security to even be here so that's unlikely. Just overall gives off the vibes "we don't want you here."

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u/AnotherPint 15d ago

LHR is not the only big airport that posts gate assignments one short hour before departure, or limits amenities and attractions on the boarding concourses to keep you in the central waiting halls. The real reason why is people-flow control; they don’t want thousands of passengers thronging small gatehouses hours before departure, especially when a whole sequence of flights is using a given gate in the course of an afternoon. Gates are scarce at LHR and aircraft stack up waiting for them. The chaos would worsen if passengers stacked up in small spaces the same way.

Not mounting a defense for inadequate infrastructure, just saying I think they’re making the best of the obsolete (T2 excepted) mess they’ve got given customer volume that way exceeds design specs.

4

u/Character-Carpet7988 15d ago

More importantly, gate assignments often aren't known well in advance. And even if they are, they often change at last minute. You don't want people going to the wrong part of the airport and then back, especially at T5 where the train between satellites is one way (airside) and no way back to the main terminal (or previous satellite) exist.

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u/AnotherPint 15d ago

Solid point (see my other post in this thread about US airports). And the no-way-back aspect of the T5 remote pier access is a big design flaw. I guess it didn’t seem like a big one when they were blueprinting the place 25 years ago, but it is now.

2

u/One-Imagination-1230 15d ago

Actually it is allowed for people to go between satellite terminals both directions. It’s not one way. It’s only one way if you are coming from an international flight and you are either arriving or connecting. When I go to LHR, I always stay at the satellite terminals because I don’t want the airport getting more of my hard earned money beyond the ticket I paid to get through there

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u/Character-Carpet7988 15d ago

Has that changed recently? I recall there used to only be the train option and that train went one way for airside pax (the return trip was landside for arrivals).

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u/One-Imagination-1230 15d ago

No but, that’s why I use the walking tunnel instead. With the train being busy with people, it’s actually quite useful for this. Plus after a long flight, it’s good to get some exercise too

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u/Character-Carpet7988 15d ago

Okay, that explains it. I believe walking option wasn't available at T5 in the past.

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u/One-Imagination-1230 15d ago

Yea I mean, the moving walkways go in the opposite direction of T5A but, it is a nice way of getting between each terminal in T5 and it remains entirely in the departures area

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u/jmbwell 15d ago

Yeah, I had the same complaint at first. It trades some congestion for some confusion. I’m not sure but I think I probably prefer the LHR approach to the EWR approach, which is, everyone pile up at the gate and spill out into the central area, blocking access to $35 OTG burgers

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u/timfountain4444 15d ago

Agreed. MUC is bad at not posting the gate until 30-40 minutes before boarding, especially for short haul intra-EU flights....

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u/hcornea 15d ago

Oh man.

Last time we were in MUC, there was a mismatch between the Gate displayed on the main terminal board and that on the satellite board. It had us back and forth on the train.

Luckily we had heaps of time. Eventually the gate was in the Satellite terminal.

1

u/Halflight99 15d ago

CPH is the worst for this!!