Two Hours Isn’t Enough

Wednesday 5th April

I fly to and from Stansted every four weeks, and I always allow two hours before take-off.  Not because it takes two hours, but I like to relax, have a breakfast in Coast to Coast and…well, you never know, better to be safe than sorry.  I was flying back yesterday but this time I had a case to check in.  A long story, suffice to say I had to for the first time, check in a case as well as hand-luggage.  So, I allowed a bit more time and got to the airport almost three hours early.  Now I have always thought the two-hour rule a bit of an exaggeration; normally I sail through Security in about ten or fifteen minutes and then have over an hour to relax before my flight is allocated a gate number.  It is probably years since I checked in a case at all and I usually walk blithely past the check-in desks barely noticing them on my way to Security.

Yesterday though I couldn’t believe how many people there were.  I looked up at the big board and my flight was checking in at over ten desks.  But with a sickening realization as I got nearer the desks themselves I realized that only two of the ten desks were actually manned.  And worse still the vast seething crowd were all queuing up for the solitary two desks.  There was a Ryanair official walking around with a clipboard who apologized and said that due to staff shortages only two desks were open.  I still had two and a half hours but the queues snaking round the room didn’t seem to be moving.  I started to panic and I must now confess that I cheated and walked halfway up the queue and just sort-of hung around looking aimless until I felt that nobody had noticed and assumed my new place in the queue.  It still took an hour to get to the desk and check in the wretched case.  Then Security, and again masses of people and several belts not working.  Maybe it was bad planning, maybe just the beginning of the Easter school holidays but again it took an hour to get through Security.  Just in time for my gate number to be called and scurry off for my flight.  So, two hours was definitely not long enough.  In fact I wonder if some of those queueing may have actually missed their flights as I would have if I hadn’t jumped the queue.  Worst of all I missed my breakfast…but at least I didn’t miss my flight.