Good music is subjective – The Eagles are amongst my favorite, and I could not resist to use a line from Hotel California for the title of this post. Hopefully, judging the quality of an airport is not as subjective as music. Some factors, and particularly transit time, can even be measured. By the time this post will go online, I’ll be in London, so I’ll have a Frankfurt – Heathrow flight behind me, but also one ahead. Travelling through London City was not possible, so I’ll have to survive a trip through the hubs of Lufthansa and British Airways on the same leg. On the plus side, it’s a short visit, so I can fly with hand luggage only, which will save some time. I recently picked-up a colleague visiting me in Frankfurt. He did reach the public part of the airport 30 minutes after landing… also with hand luggage only. This could be hell…

To make the trip a bit more interesting, and possibly more enjoyable, I will change it into a little experiment, and measure my own transit time. I’ll note the times at which I’ll pass the different steps:

• Reaching the airport by train
• Time for check-in (hopefully quick because automated)
• Time to pass the security screening(s)
• Bus transfer, boarding time
• Taxi time, time at the holding point
• Taxi time after landing
• Time to reach the immigration booth
• Time to reach the public are
• Time to reach the train station

The scientist in me has to say that a single measure in each direction will certainly not be representative. True, but I like the concept of the experience, and if it’s as fun as I expect, I’ll try to generalize it to all my travels. If you’re an airport user as well, and want to join, I’ll be happy to relay your measurements here. Will my own trip be heaven or hell ? You’ll know more in the next days… and you’ll also know soon why I’m ready to face up a possibly harassing, despite short, trip.

Read more:

My personal views about Frankfurt airport and London City airport

Check the “Best European Airport” section in The Archives

PS: shortly after composing this post, I received an e-mail from Lufthansa, telling me that it was possible to make my check-in online. This went fine, and I now have a PDF boarding pass, I can go directly to the gate… I mean, through security.