which airport in london

I will be travelling from London to Cork once a month for the next year. Have never been to London before except for getting connecting flights from Heathrow and I'm curious as to which airport is the "easiest" to travel from. A friend who lives in London told me to use Gatwick as Stansted and Heathrow are nightmarishly busy but another friend insists that she would only travel with Aer Lingus through Heathrow. I am leaning towards flying from Gatwick with Ryanair but would appreciate any advice/opinions from anyone with a bit of experience of the above three airports!

Thanks,

I would have thought your choice would be the airport located closest to your destination in London.

If you have business in south London either Heathrow or Gatwick would be better located than Stansted.

Here's a [broken link removed] showing their locations which may help you to decide.

thanks for that delgirl,

I'll be living about ten mins from King's Cross station so I think that's convenient enough, I know gatwick certainly has a direct train.

Getting *to* Heathrow from Ireland is fine, and the tube & Heathrow Express provide good connections. The problem can be getting back out of Heathrow at 1730 on a weekday evening when the queue to get through security can be huge (and unmanaged). I don't know what the other airports are like, but because you share a queue with all the UK domestic flights from Heathrow there can be a lot of people doing the evening commute by plane there.

I would consider using different airports for getting there and back as necessary, especially if you will be going to work/college like it sounds. If you plan on coming back after a hard weeks work the last thing you would want to do is to have to make a few tube/train connections to get to the far side of London just to save €30 on the fare or because the timing for the outbound flight was the best. Getting across London, especially where it involves connections can soak up a huge amount of time, and when you are on your way home for a short weekend you might find the time is better spent with your friends in Cork than sitting on the tube with strangers.

Summary - examine all options, bearing in mind that these will be affected by such things as whether you are flying in on Sunday evening or Monday morning, and again whether you are flying out Friday rush hour, or earlier or later in the day.

z

Having commuted in the past from Shannon to South London, I have always used Heathrow. It's nice just to be able to hop on a tube at Heathrow and arrive at your destination. In your case, you can get the Picadilly Line straight from Heathrow to Kings Cross without changing lines.

Stansted has direct flights to Cork and is easily accessible from central and north London by a speedy rail connection that originates, I think, at Liverpool St. Modern efficient airport too. Gatwick's a right dump, which would grate on you if using it regularly, and in Heathrow you have to walk that dreaded "Irish Mile" to the gate.

For SW London I'd always choose Heathrow... for ease of access and the greater number of flights (to Dublin) than the other airport.

From Kings X area

Stansted would be fairly handy - it's a short tube ride to Liverpool St for the Stansted Express (but this is expensive)
Gatwick - there are some trains from Kings X to Gatwick - but the bulk of trains to Gatwick go from Victoria - (trains to Gatwick are less expensive than Stansted as you don't have to take the Express - indeed there's little point as the other trains are almost as fast, more frequent and a fiver cheaper)
Heathrow - Direct tube from Kings X (50-55minutes) is a cheap and handy access option .. you'd also have the option of tubing to Paddington and taking the expensive Heathrow Express.

Given the limited numbers of flights to/from Cork to London airports - i'd be inclined to choose the times that suited you better .. if you want to fly at 18.00 on a Friday then pick the airport that has the flight closest to that time.

Another thing to take into account for Cork-London flights - see how long Ryanair keep up the Gatwick route now they've beaten Easyjet off it .. wouldn't be surprised if they dropped it before too long and just kept Stansted from Cork

Also I'm always of the opinion that life it to short to fly Ryanair if they can be avoided - They're very often not that cheap at all either for Ireland-London flights

Definitely Gatwick for value. I travel to London every fortnight with Ryanair to LGW. Stansted is indeed a nicer airport but travelling into town is more expensive. You can get an all day travelcard Zone 1-6 for GBP10 to travel to Kings Cross and back (and all tube travel for the day). This is not valid on all trains from LGW so beware but if you have time to spare you will not be waiting for more than 20 mins for the appropriate train.

Thanks for all the contributions,

Some really helpful info there! Have booked my first couple of flights from Gatwick with Ryanair and one from Heathrow with Aer Lingus, I can compare then and see which suits me better. In fairness Ryanair from Gatwick does seem to work out the cheapest which is important given that I'll be travelling so much.

Thanks again.