Like a lot of people, I got freaked out after notifications of flights from the UK, big delays, cancellations, and missed flights. Fortunately, I wasn’t flying out of Manchester Airport and didn’t go to a major tourist destination, although Budapest is well worth a visit at any time of the year.
Sunday (April 10) at 11:55 am, my family booked a flight to Hungary on an easyJet flight from Gatwick, and we were getting ready for the airport a lot of the time. In the end we thought getting there the day before should give us enough time for any road/airport chaos.
So, with my wife and two kids, I booked into the Travelodge at the airport (just a five minute drive from the car park) and booked a parking spot, so it was only a five minute drive before check-in. We had a lot of time, so we thought we’d do everything we could.
And we had. With everything going according to plan after arriving from our home in Gloucestershire on a Saturday afternoon, we were ready to dine at our hotel on Saturday at 5pm. This left us plenty of room for our next lunch trip.
Speaking to the folks at Travelodge, we weren’t the only ones who decided to take the risk of traveling for a relatively long time to the airport. Another family left Somerset on Saturday for the night before a Sunday afternoon flight.
In fact, we should not worry. Due to a short walk to the airport car park and our short walk before departure, the time from check-in to check-out was about 10 minutes.
(Photo: Phil Norris)
That means we left our bags at 9:07 am and by 9:10 am. Being late in defense doesn’t mean we’ve been clean for five minutes. This gave us plenty of time to relax at the airport before our flight was called.
The airport seemed relatively quiet and we had the longest queues in Britt to get sandwiches on board. Boarding was also easy and we had a short wait on the runway, the pilot told us Gatwick was ‘too busy’, but we left around 12:20 for our two hour flight to Budapest.
Once we got to Budapest, there was only ten minutes to wait for them to cross the border and maybe 15 minutes for our bags to arrive. And then, despite a couple of days of travel, our vacation with us can start off relaxed or a little tired.
Source: Belfastlive
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
