Trip Report: Gatwick to Jersey 2018 British Airways European Economy Class The Gatwick Drone

On Friday 21st December I flew from London Gatwick to Jersey on a British Airways A319. However the main part of the flight was before we had even got to the plane, as following from the day before where Gatwick had been shut for the whole day, Gatwick was shut for an hour before our flight due to the drone reappearing.

On the day before the flight, we woke up to the news that Gatwick had been closed due to an appearance of a drone near the airfield. However I was confident that the airport would be re-opened within hours with it become much easier to spot the drone once the daylight returned. However as the day went on without airport re-opening, I became increasingly anxious that our flight the following evening would be effected.
However by Friday morning the airport had been re-opened so we assumed that our flight in the evening would be absolutely fine, our main concern instead at that point was that there may be traffic on the motorway on our drive down. We arrived at the car park at the airport with plenty of time to spare however. I absolutely loved the car park due to its position right at the end of the runway meaning that all arriving aircraft pass directly overhead. 

Norweigan 787 arriving at Gatwick Airport

Unfortunately for me however, it was not long before our bus arrived, meaning that I only got to see a Norwegian 787 landing. Arriving at the BA check-in area at the terminal, it was apparent that the previous day's effects had not been passed onto today, with the airport terminal being basically empty, with the media area the most busy part of the airport. We managed to pass through to security without having to queue, which really helps get rid of the parts of the airport experience that I dislike the most (queueing), which was also surprising only 4 days before Christmas. I also enjoyed using the self service check in and bag drop machines which whilst removing the human contact with the check-in staff, really speed up bag-drop at the airport.  

Quiet Check in Area

Once through security we managed to find ourselves a quiet corner of Gatwick away from the chaos of the main terminal. I find that at most airports if you look hard enough you can find somewhere like this, where there are plenty of seats and plenty of peace and quiet. I went off to get some food to keep us going before our flight and then walked down to the gates to see what aircraft I could see, however as it was dark outside this was difficult to do, therefore before long I returned back to where we were waiting. Soon however after looking on social media I discovered that the mysterious drone that had shut down the airport for the whole of the previous day had again reappeared.
This was honestly one of the most gutting experiences of a flight delay I'd had, as it meant that we had an unconfirmed flight delay and felt pretty sure that we were going to end up being at Gatwick beyond midnight at this point. Walking down to a different set of gates you could see the end of the runway where there were only about five aircraft holding short of the runway, however before long almost all of these returned back to their gates, leaving only the Aurigny Embraer waiting. 

Turkish Airlines 737. In the background you can see the end of the runway with only one aircraft waiting.


Heading back into the main terminal to stock up on more food feeling certain we were going to be stuck there for hours, the queues for the airline desks were snaking around most of the terminal and it felt that a whole mass of people had appeared from nowhere standing around the information screens turning what was a quiet peaceful and empty terminal into a mass of people and chaos. Whilst I was also in the main terminal the reappearance of the drone and subsequent suspension of airfield activities was announced over the PA system, the first confirmation from inside the airport that I'd heard, almost an hour after the airport had been shut down. To add to this looking on flight radar, we could see that our plane was diverting to Stansted, which would have added to the delay. Having set up my laptop plugged into a socket and having finally logged into the WiFi, the first web page and logged into was flight radar and to our relief, the first aircraft had taken off from Gatwick confirming the airport had reopened. To add to this our plane had also not yet landed at Stansted, despite looking like it had been on approach to the airport, meaning that our delay would have been significantly less than if it had actually landed at Stansted. However at this point we were still not quite clear of chaos. Heading back into the main terminal, it appeared that order had been abandoned at the airline information desks, with just a crowd of people massed around them, with people ignoring the queue snaking out of it and joining onto the back of this crowd.

Queues at the airline information desks

 On top of this looking on line there was absolutely no indication as to when exactly our flight would now actually be leaving, with the British Airways and Gatwick websites both saying different times about an hour apart, whilst the information boards inside the terminal saying absolutely nothing beyond please wait. This carried on after both the websites co-ordinated their times, giving us an eventual departure time about an hour after our original time. 


However still at this point the departure boards at Gatwick did not have any further information on them. This continued until about 25 minutes before our flight was due to depart they changed to saying that our gate was closed. This caused what was basically panic, people sprinting down to the gate, fearing they'd missed their flight. In the fact the opposite of this was true and the gate hadn't even opened yet. For me this was the most frustrating aspect of the whole experience. I know that there is nothing that Gatwick could do about the drone being there so I was quite happy to patiently sit and wait through that. However what Gatwick does have complete control over are their information boards. Displaying nothing apart from please wait before changing that to Gate closed is about as bad as they could have done. All this caused was panic after what was a stressful situation waiting for our flight. 
Our Plane to Jersey

 Thankfully the information boards were not correct but I do not know what would have happened if they were true. Would British Airways have delayed the flight further so that all the passengers could have got there, or would they have just left, seeing as they had passengers to pick up at the other end. This was just a bad experience that could have easily been avoided if Gatwick had displayed the right info on their boards. However shortly after getting to the gate we were boarded by group, something I do not see the point of on these short haul flights as the ground crew, trying to get everyone on board as quickly as possible, just rush through the group's, leaving almost no difference between most of them.

Inside the BA A319

Once on board he interior was what you would expect from any A319 jet that you would fly on. The on thing I did notice was he lack of that little piece of fabric over the headrests, something that you almost never notice when it's there, but the lack of left a sense of something not quite being right. The British airways leather seats are reasonably comfortable and the leg room was satisfactory and left a little bit of room to move around in. Boarding was completed relatively quickly, and after a short wait before push back, we took a short taxi from our gate straight to the runway without stopping, and took off very quickly. The flights itself was very quick and comfortable and soon we were in approach to Jersey. On approach there was quite a bit of low lying cloud meaning we passed through the clouds quite shortly before landing. The landing itself was relatively soft despite the noticeable cross wind. 

Germania A319 in Jersey

Getting off the plane, the wind was blowing strongly onto the aircraft itself. Therefore getting down the steps at them back of the aircraft was harder than normal. However once off the aircraft I had the chance to check out the Germania A319 parked at the neighbouring gate. Once into the terminal it was a very short walk to the baggage reclaim, where our bags were some of the first out, meaning we got out of the airport and to the car hire within approximately 15 minutes of landing, bringing a swift end to out trip.

If you want to read more reviews of British Airway's european economy class, read my reviews of my trips to Berlin and Seville both from 2019. 

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