Luton Airport: 'Painful' or 'stress-free'?

"Stressful", "abysmal", and a "total nightmare" are just some of the comments used to describe London Luton Airport after it was slammed in a passenger satisfaction survey.

The consumer magazine Which? asked subscribers to rate airports which they had travelled through between May 2017 and May 2018.

Luton Airport scored 35% - the worst for the third year in a row.

The airport's chief executive said £160m had recently been spent on improvements, and the vast majority of passengers it had surveyed were happy with their experience.

So why did passengers in the Which? survey rate it so poorly?

Queues for bag reclaim - one star

Rob Bowman from Aylesbury said in message to the BBC that his experience of Luton airport when he returned from a holiday in Dubrovnik in July was "horrendous".

He said: "We waited for a good hour and a half for baggage after, and (it) turns out they lost the entire plane's luggage and had to find it... Supposed to have been home by 2am. Rocked up at 5.30am."

Range of food/shops outlets - one star

Dave Armstrong said on Twitter: "Luton Airport decided in their infinite wisdom that the passenger experience would be greatly enhanced by the addition of shops, rather than basic requirements of comfort, i.e. seating areas, clean & functioning toilets and jetways to board aircraft in all weathers."

Staff - one star

Janice Woodcock said on Twitter: "Not surprised, we landed there last night and it took an hour to get through passport control and baggage reclaim. Then long walk to pick up point which was very poorly signposted - a very painful experience for my 88-year-old dad with no visible staff to assist."

'Never had any problems'

But many passengers have been quick to defend the airport.

QuizzicalPigeon posted a message on the BBC News website saying: "I have to say I'm surprised that Luton came bottom. I've flown in/ out of there three times a year for several years now and I've never had any problems."

One passenger told the BBC at the airport yesterday:"The times that we have flown in and out of Luton it has been relatively stress-free. It is just because there's not as many amenities as there are at, say, Gatwick."

Skinny John, who contacted the BBC through social media, said: "I've never had a real problem at Luton Airport, it's always busy but surely that's a sign of its success. As for the accusation of there's always building work, that's because they're constantly improving it."

"A period of significant change"

The chief executive of Luton Airport, Nick Barton, said the survey represented a fraction of its passengers, and that during the time of the survey, £160m had been spent redeveloping the airport.

"As we near the end of our biggest transformation we're proud to have recently opened 30 new shops and restaurants. We've also added close to a thousand new seats throughout the terminal and doubled the size of our security search area.

"Evidence of our focus on improving the passenger experience is paying off... Our advice is people should come and experience LLA for themselves, " he said.