Ryanair say two hours before flight is due to leave, friends say 45mins will be fine (its not a peak time). thoughts?

however long it takes to park,get through security and to the gate. + 10mins.

I normally aim to park an hour before departure at bristol.

Some airlines (easyjet?) now close the gate 40mins before the flight rather than 30

plan to rock up just as they do the last call, can back fire in terms of finding space for hand luggage, but saves tedious hours spent in departures.

“rock up”?

I always get there early. Much nicer to go through all the faff in plenty of time and then sit with a coffee and a paper, rather than be in a mad rush to get to the gate in time.

It only takes a long queue at security to completely balls things up.

Rock up

HTH

Which airport? Security check in queues will be your biggest variable once you get to the airport and these can vary quite a lot between airports.

I don’t think that smoking cocaine in an airport would be a good idea.

Couple of hours chill out have a beer and relax – I may be one of those people who worry about missing planes. My worst recently was bad traffic and the check in staff telling me not to stop till I got to the gate…

Ryan air does have a lounge doesn’t it?

mikewsmith – Member
Couple of hours chill out have a beer and relax – I may be one of those people who worry about missing planes. My worst recently was bad traffic and the check in staff telling me not to stop till I got to the gate…

This, definitely this.

Same as Jambo here. For Bristol, parking about an hour before. Walk to the terminal in 5 mins and straight to security. Add 20 mins if I have bags, add an hour if its a big airport.

Thanks guys. Its East Midlands 6am in the morning, I think we wont have any congestion to deal with!

Do Ryanair allocate seating? Always nice to let some get on the plane 1st so you can pick a nice lady to sit next to.

Its East Midlands 6am in the morning, I think we wont have any congestion to deal with

!

Err, bad mistake, I used to get there on Monday @6am (for 7:00am flight) and the security queues were sometimes massive. I had to pay to fasttrack a couple of times or I’d miss my flight. Dunno what it’s like midweek, but 6:00AM isn’t quiet on a Monday.

moe_szyslak – Member
Thanks guys. Its East Midlands 6am in the morning, I think we wont have any congestion to deal with!

Erm. You might be OK, but I wouldn’t bank on it. For 4 months I used to fly from Stansted to Luebeck on Ryanair; 6:25am every Monday morning and the security queues were pretty bad. I used to get there in plenty of time to go and have breakfast, sit and read the paper etc.

The early flights are normally full of people going over to Europe for work, wanting to get as near to a full day at work in as possible.

As above. 6am is first flights of the day time, and tends to be busy. The service roads & parking can also get more congested than normal.

Airports are busy early doors for lots of reasons.

Busisness people like to travel then to get a full day’s work at their destination. Airlines like early flights so they can get an extra back and forth into the scedule. Holdiay makers like early mornings as they are often cheaped and they get longer away for the same number of nights.

But I’d bet the airport has less staff on to cope as it’s out of normal working hours.

Traffic will be quiet though

I fly a fair bit & only once got caught out at Gatwick where the security queue took c 1 hour. Usually its 15 mins but sadly you can’t bank on it.

I leave 2 hours, sometimes you are held at security to show contents of bag etc. Just get a paper & have a coffee in the spare time.

I do a lot of flying and much prefer to avoid the worry and be there in advance, enjoy a bacon sarnie and a drink before boarding the flight. Early doors airports are really busy!

My neighbour’s MIL thought not enough would be enough, he had to put up with her for another day and buy another ticket.

It depends on the airport, security checks can take forever in big airports but small ones are usually fast. I leave 2h for big airports and 1h30 in small ones.