[TheMidasGold]

I agree. I dread to think what it will be like for the Jubilee and Olympics.

Our great country will be on show and I really hope that our visitors receive a warmer welcome that the one they received this morning.

Tip – the ongoing UKBA debacle will be Theresa May’s downfall!!

[LPPSKrisflyer]

TheMidasGold – 17/04/2012 10:44 GMT

Oh, if only we could be guaranteed that the UKBA debacle would be Theresa May’s downfall. I would stand in immigration queues over the next three months without a word of complaint if I believed she would be gone at the end of it.

[DavidGordon10]

T5 this morning? You should have seen T3 late yesterday evening. Only two officers checking the EU passports and a crowd of more than 400 trying to get to them – many large familes with young children (a flight arriving from Tel Aviv), people fainting….. My journey from plane to ground transport took much longer than my journey from Frankfurt to LHR. Don’t make Theresa May resign, just make her perpetually go round and round through LHR immigration as a regular passenger, a modern day Dante’s Inferno.

[LPPSKrisflyer]

So I was in T3 first thing in the morning and it was chaos and gordoncph was there in the evening and it was chaos and probably chaos throughout the day too.

I wonder how you apologise that one away. I guess it just must have been an exceptionally bad day……

I think we just all need to coordinate our travel to match that of VK we will no longer have any problems. Clearly apart from the time he returned on Sunday night and wherever he was to have had chicken tikka in club europe yesterday he’s certainly transiting immigration a great deal at the moment so we should all be able to meet him at some point soon and save ourselves a lot of stress.

[RichHI1]

Posters, have patience… I have heard rumours that ina cabinet reshuffle after the local elections we may well see Ms May moved to somewhere where her special talents can be better employed.

[TGLynch]

I flew in from Stockholm last night arriving into T5 at around 2240. I could not believe the queues in Immigration with the EU line completely full. I was lucky I could use IRIS which was working and had no queue. I rarely have any delay entering the US or any other European country. I do not believe these delays would be tolerated anywhere else. One simply dreads the Olympics and what it will mean at LHR in the July/August period.

[CosmicB]

To be honest, I try to avoid going to London whenever possible. The last 5 arrivals from Berlin ( flight time 70 minutes) were delayed at passport control by 45-60 minutes. The EU-passport checks were on average manned by 2 to 3 officers only and it looked as if they received a bonus if they kept a passengers passport as long as possible. Followed by regular failures of the Picadilly line on the way to the Centre where I mostly stayed at totally overpriced hotels that were way below any establishments at home that charge not even half the price.

[wanula72]

It seems to have been like this for a couple of weeks now, I came back into T5 on Easter Monday at around 3pm and it was chaos with escalators turned off, large queues at all the desks etc. Thankfully IRIS was working so was through relatively quickly.

I have to say though it doesn’t seem to be unique to LHR, it took over an hour to get through Hong Kong (and they have no fast track for business or first passengers), apparently there have been lots of complaints and media focus on the Immigration Authorities in HK especially with plans announced for a 3rd runway. Based on my last entrance they can’t even manage two runways….

As an aside, do we know when BAA will increase the length or frequency of the transit trains between T5C, B and A? My flight arrived into B gates and it was impossible to get on the to the first two trains coming from the C gates as they were full. I dread to think what its like early in the morning or when BA start using A380’s in C gates.

[Henkel.Trocken]

RichHI1 – where have you heard Mrs May might be going? Should we start speculating? I would hope she was stepping down from parliament altogether and given the talents she has displayed while there I would imagine she would struggle to find another role. I just can’t imagine what she’s might be good for.

[RichHI1]

HT no idea. I have some friends in UK who belong to that particular persuasion and they asvised me that there are many who think that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. If the Local results go the way some activists predict then …

After all it will not be Dave’s fault… And there may not be many liberal Democrat coallition politicians left to blame.

[VintageKrug]

Theresa’s had rather a good day.

The odious hate preacher Abu Qatada is hobbling off to prison again, legally, and thence to Jordan where I would imagine he won’t get Sky TV in his cell…

[Bucksnet]

He might remain here longer than you think VK: –

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9210232/Qatada-will-stay-for-another-year-as-he-fights-deportation.html

Another reason to leave the EU and retake control of our own country. If we wasn’t in the EU we could have deported him 10 years ago.

[RichHI1]

Ms May’s campaign to build support in the ranks got underway big time today. Hence the leaking to the press and rushed announcement. The timing has been optimizeed so she can look pro-active and it won’t hit snags until after May elections.

Still not sure it will be enough if what I am told is the case. As prior posted I am not party political so the inner workings of the Conservative Party are as unknown to me as those of BA or its unions.

I have no idea where she coudl go, swapping Home and Foreign Secretaries is somewhat frightening as it would surely lead to another conflict in the South Atlantic. I do think Hague has been doing a reasonable job. He certainly seems the safrst pair of hands in the team.

[KeaneJohn]

Friends of mine had a wait of 90 minutes at Stanstead last night so its the UKBA being short staffed.

Wonder if Business Traveller could approach the UKBA and/or BAA for an explanation as to why such long waits and what is being done to improve matters. ?

[RichHI1]

John Keane, this is the reply you get when you ask questions about massive queues or iris being down… I have many of them…

“Thank you for your email and comments. These have been passed to the officers at terminal 3 and also added to your file.”

I am not sure if it is supposed to scare you… 😉

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