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New research has found that one in ten parents found travelling from Gatwick Airport to be a stressful experience.

The research, carried out by the airport, found that 36 per cent of families are concerned about being able to transport their luggage.

Due to the distance between the long-stay car parking facilities and the airport, 58 per cent of parents admitted to allowing more time to reach the boarding gate when travelling with children rather than alone.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick Airport chief executive said, “Already at Gatwick we have launched security assistance lanes for parents with children so that they can go through security at their own pace and get a little extra help from our staff.”

Gatwick recently became the first airport to develop specific lanes for families within the immigration halls.

Working in partnership with the UK Border Agency, the airport has introduced new improvements in the immigration halls to reduce queue times and make it easier for returning holidaymakers.

This service also includes passengers with children and those with reduced mobility.

Geoff Williams, Head of Security at Gatwick Airport said, “We understand that the return journey can often feel long and exhausting. This is especially true if you are travelling with young children and you just want to get back home as quickly as possible.

“Staff who man these lanes have received extra training in customer service so that they know how to provide the right level of help.

“This has the benefit of making passengers feel more supported and it helps to reduce the length of queues across all the lanes.

“We expect other airports will follow suit, just as they did when we introduced family lanes at security.”

Gatwick has also introduced a new automated ePassport gate, which enables passengers to speed through immigration.

The new system will allow EU passengers with biometric passports to go through passport control considerably faster. The new gates use facial recognition technology, which scans the passenger’s face and matches it to their passport photograph.

(Image: UggBoy♥UggGirl)

About the author

Oonagh ShielContent Manager at Cheapflights whose travel life can be best summed up as BC (before children) and PC (post children). We only travel during the school holidays so short-haul trips and staycations are our specialities!

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