(14 Feb 2024, 8:45 pm)mb134 wrote I find it mental that the Metro doesn't serve the airport until well after you'd need to be there for first flights. First train from Regent Centre is at 05:18, and anywhere south of that on the line is around 6am.
As an example, the first flights tomorrow are:
0600 Lanzarote
0600 Amsterdam
0605 Paris
From experience, the 0600 Amsterdam tends to be a very busy 737. The Lanzarote is also a 737, so these are hardly flights with a lack of passengers.
For context, in 2022 Newcastle Airport served 4.1 million passengers while Aberdeen Airport served 1.96 million. The latter has a well used bus service which would get you there at 3:27am and 4:32am for first flights at 6am, the former literally has a light rail system attached to it yet nothing running there until around 5:30am.
For engineering I'd guess, even known it's not ideal. Not many trains run anywhere in the country at that time, even in London bar the Elizabeth line. Have to do the work sometime.
Believe it was the Hidden London Hangouts (Youtube) where they go into the hidden parts of the underground, they sometimes show the engineering work which goes on overnight, where most people think the gates are just shut and that's it, assume it's the same up here.