Airport check in times

Saturday, October 4th, 2008


OK, time for a little rant now. Back in 1970, the Palestinians hijacked 5 Western aircraft to a field in Jordan and blew them up. 2 of them were American planes. What happened to check-in times? Nothing! They stuck at one hour, typically. Today, we have 2 hours for scheduled economy class and 3 hours for charter flights. It is said to be down to the need for increased security. Rubbish!

I am with Jeremy Clarkson here when he said it's all down to the quantities of thickos we have travelling in these days of low cost airlines and budget flights. More time is required to allow them to satisfy their needs in duty-free and the bars and find their way to the gate. You don't believe me? Just visit Cardiff Airport at 5 in the morning.


Clarkson suggested that check-in times should be linked to your IQ; the higher your IQ, the shorter the time. Can't think of an equation right now but my sliding scale would run something like: IQ70 - 3 hours, 100 - 2 hours, 125 - 1 hour, 150 or over - 30 minutes. Cannot do less than 30 minutes because we need to give them guys downstairs time to look through your luggage, steal what they want and get the rest to the aircraft.