London City is probably my favourite choice, but least easy to get to 
… at least, I hope there is!
The news from Gatwick that (no doubt, stung into action by bad publicity *) they and the UK Border Agency are trying to improve the grisly immigration hall procedures, made me recognise that there are two parts to a normal trip – the going and the coming back – and maybe we don’t think about the second part enough.
You don’t normally get much choice about the airport you use unless you live in a capital city and you are flying to somewhere pretty popular – say, Barcelona, Amsterdam or Paris. Even then your choice is likely to be made on other criteria: price, timing, airline (would anyone willingly travel with that Irish airline?).
That said, I DO live in London and surprisingly often I DO have a choice between similar flights from a couple of the ‘London Airports’. What’s more, there’s not much to choose between them – the experience at all of them is uniformly vile, and for me the ‘getting there’ is pretty evenly balanced too.
- Heathrow 5-10 min bus to Finsbury park + 1hr 5mins on tube to LHR
- Gatwick 5-10 min bus to Finsbury park + 20mins to Victoria + 35mins to LGW
- Stansted 15-20 min bus to Tottenham Hale + 35 mins to STN
- Luton 50 min drive (then car park)
- City 10-15 min bus to Archway + 35 mins tube to Bank + 15mins DLR to LCY
So, maybe I should start factoring in the ‘arrivals’ experience when choosing.
(* I’m not pompously suggesting they are stung by criticism from just me, but the cynic in me thinks it can only be adverse publicity in general that has prompted this attention on Arrivals. It can’t be a commercial initiative. Arriving passengers are not much of a revenue source!)