Avoiding the London Heathrow Hassle

If you're planning a trip to Britain there is a good chance that you'll be flying into Heathrow Airport near London. Heathrow is the 3^rd biggest airport in the world in terms of Passenger Numbers (67,530,197 in 2006) and the biggest in the world in terms of international passengers (61,348,340 in 2006) but it was designed to handle just 45 million passengers, and the strain is beginning to show. Even British Airways, the airports biggest airline has referred to the "Heathrow Hassel" and the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, has described it as London's "Shame". A new terminal (Terminal 5) is due to open in March 2008 but that's just the start of a long program of renovation and rebuilding that's due to last until 2012.

Alternative London Airports

So what can you do if you want to fly to Britain and avoid Heathrow? Well, London has four airports that have flights from the US. As well as Heathrow there is Gatwick to the South of London and Stansted to the North east. Gatwick handles many flights from all across the US, operated by Delta, Continental and Northwest amongst others. The airport has a direct rail link to Central London (about 30 Minutes) and easy access to London's M25 Ring Road. Stansted is served by American Airlines from New York's JFK as well as by Business Class only carriers MaxJet (New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles) and Eos (New York). As with Gatwick there is a direct Rail Link to Central London and if your traveling to East Anglia there are excellent road connections to East Anglia and Cambridge. The fourth option is Luton, north of London served by Business Class Only Airline Silverjet from New York's Newark Airport.

Avoiding London

If your not traveling to London (or even if you are) then consider the many regional airports around the UK. Manchester is very central and good for the north of England and the Midlands, especially convenient for Liverpool, North Wales and Yorkshire. Direct flights to Manchester are available from Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, New York, Orlando and Philadelphia. Birmingham Airport between London and Manchester is on the West Coast main rail line that operates between London and Glasgow and beyond. The Journey time by rail to Central London is about 85 minutes. Birmingham also has direct rail links to Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Brighton, Glasgow and Manchester. Flights to Birmingham are available from Newark with Continental and Toronto, Canada. Cardiff Airport in Wales is an ideal arrival destination for South Wales and the West Country(Including Bath, Bristol, Devon and Cornwall). There are no direct flights from the US but Canadian Airline Zoom operates direct flights from Vancouver and Toronto. If your not travelling to England, then there may not be need to fly there. Both the best known cities in Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow have direct flight from the US. New York (Newark) flights are available to both airports and JFK has flights to Glasgow. You'll also find flights to Glasgow from Vancouver Toronto and Calgary.

The European Connection

Of course these routes may not be convenient, especially if you don't live on the West Coast. With the US-European "Open Skys" agreement due to come into place next year, the number of routes to both the UK and Europe is bound to increase. If your local Airport has direct flights to other European Destinations you might want to consider connecting through Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin or Shannon. If you do, don't rely on the airlines or the mainstream websites to look for your connections. There are many low cost airlines in Europe that may be the best value between your European arrival airport and your British destination. Check the map (Google maps, Mapquest etc) to find the nearest airport to your ultimate destination and check their website for details of all their carriers. There are 35 Airports in Britain with low cost flights to Europe, so by connecting you could get much closer to the Britain you want to see and avoid the Hassle