V-Flyer

Does anybody know what MCO will be like in January on the 1pm flight from Gatwick like immigration etc.

It will depend on many factors - mainly how many other flights are arriving at or around the same time.

It can vary so greatly it's very hard to predict.

What date are you flying? You may find there are reduced Manchester or BA flights which may help.

I'd not let yourself get worried - think the worst then you may be pleasantly surprised.

Luke12 wrote:It will depend on many factors - mainly how many other flights are arriving on or around the same time.

It can vary so greatly it's very hard to predict.

What date are you flying? You may find there are reduced Manchester or BA flights which may help.

I'd not let yourself get worried - think the worst then you may be pleasantly surprised.

Ok thanks it's on the 10th of jan

IIRC three UK flights arrive at MCO at roughly the same time - VS and BA from London and VS from Manchester.

The last time I did it, on the VS LGW flight, the captain came on the PA and told us it would be a race to the gate. We won but it was close so it really is pot luck as to which flight arrives first.

If yours is the first to land you should be through immigration relatively speedily. If it's the last you could be looking at up to 2 hours in a very dull queue.

One has to ask - why can't they stagger the arrival of the "Big Beasts " ? There must be plenty of internal flight arrivals not needing the Immigration Halls. I suppose it is to do with money and Immigration Officials hanging round needlessly !

hiljil wrote:One has to ask - why can't they stagger the arrival of the "Big Beasts " ? There must be plenty of internal flight arrivals not needing the Immigration Halls. I suppose it is to do with money and Immigration Officials hanging round needlessly !

Also, the airlines won't want their a/c sat on the ground at MCO any longer than necessary. However they can't have any leave to early because they might hit arrival restrictions at UK airports, and they don't want them arriving to late as they need to utilise the a/c on other daytime flights.

The situation is far from ideal at MCO, but it is what it is, and in the grand scheme of things if you have to wait an hour for immigration it really isn't the end of the world.

...and, at least as far as Virgin is concerned, the LGW and MAN aircraft are interworked at Orlando, so they pretty much need to be on the ground there at roughly the same time.