[Anonymous]

[TerryMcManus24]

Latest from other London Airport…

Long passport queues ‘unacceptable’, Stansted bosses say Queues built up at Stansted Airport on Friday Continue reading the main story

Long queues for passport control checks at UK airports are a fact of life but are still an “unacceptable” part of travel, Stansted Airport bosses say.

Delays of more than 45 minutes were experienced by hundreds of passengers at the Essex airport on Friday night.

The airport has said this was not a one-off happening, and queues at immigration were an “ongoing problem”.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the Stansted issue would be looked at, but Heathrow Airport was the “key” focus

Methinks its time this Mrs Terri May went and gave the job to somebody who might….err maybe even…dare one suggest a .. Boris

[RichHI1]

She has dropped too many balls. There competent people in the administration and one needs to be made Home Secretary. Maybe she could be Minister for Europe or Women…

[FormerlyDoS]

Do you think that members of a ‘Border Force’, who play a key role in defence of the realm, should be allowed to participate in industrial action?

[LuganoPirate]

No Dos, I don’t think they should be allowed to strike. Like the police and army, they’re frontline “troops” protecting our borders and provide a very important role. In many countries immigration duties are carried out by the police. Switzerland being one example but I can think of many more.

[RichHI1]

Interestingly the UK Police Force Union is discussing adopting the right to strike. Unhappy times I guess.
It does seem strange they can walk out as they wish but when I posted that at the previous strike Others posters said they were useless and should not be equated with the Police or Security Forces.

[JamesMoloney5]

Heathrow processed almost 65,000,000 passengers last year and its now a basket case in terms of non-EU Immigration. Week before last I had visitors from Indonesia arrive at Heathrow on an Etihad flight, at 7am. I waited until 10:30am before they came through into the arrivals area at T3.

They made the comment that Indonesia, as a third world country, would be embarrassed if it treated its arriving visitors in this manner.

Jakarta airport is ancient, with only 2 terminals, and it processed 44,000,000 passengers last year. I visit Jakarta at least twice a month and the longest I have to wait in the Immigration line is about 45 minutes…on a very bad day!

Singapore’s Changi airport is a beacon of efficiency, processing almost 50,000,000 passengers last year, through three terminals and has anybody ever had to wait longer than 20 minutes – again on a very bad day – at Changi Immigration? I doubt it.

Hong Kong airport, probably the least efficient when the numbers are compared to Changi (55,000,000 in 2011 through two terminals) but still the longest I have ever known anybody to wait – on a really, really bad day, is about an hour. I regularly visit hong Kong but have the luxury of an e-Channel pass so I breeze through……

How many terminals does Heathrow have…..FIVE….well T2 is out of action at the moment, and that might be a contributory factor, but really the Government and the Home Office in particular should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

Their excuses are pathetic and they are putting England up for ridicule…..with the Olympics around the corner……more cringing embarrassment to come….

[RichHI1]

There is no doubt that LHR immigration is a disgrace and a shambles. Whilst this forum is no place for politics ( apologies to our virtual friend) there is a political issue here. It is easier to argue statistics than fix a problem. Too much government attention has been spent on adopting a Canute reaction to figures rather than fixing the problem. My personal belief is the Prime Minister and the Government are now fully aware of the problem and will follow through with a fix which will Involve putting a more experienced minister in the home office. The recent political events in UK probably show the electorate is more concerned with competence than politics.

[MartynSinclair]

I know it sounds rather simple solution, but why cant more officers be employed or trained to work front line.

[RichHI1]

Because they just got rid of a few thousand to save money?

[Tete_de_cuvee]

If efficiencies are the order of the day they need to multi-skill them enabling efficient line-balancing to occur.

Similar to Tesco or other supermarket they do not want cashiers doing nothing when there are no queues so they stack shelves etc. Likewise all management should man kiosks when queues look greater than 20minutes.

As aircraft seldom run to schedule it is difficult to match resource with actual, as opposed to predicted, arrival rates.

Similar to ATC the UKBA needs to have someone on top of arrivals, minute to minute, enabling a little surplus capacity to be moved between terminals in-advance instead of waiting for the queues to build. A half decent Operational Research grad could do a far better job of queue management and matching supply with demand without too much waste.

Behaviour profiling should also be reconsidered.

[MartynSinclair]

why dont they re employ some or will the positons being going to students for summer jobs?

[Tete_de_cuvee]

I agree they should.

Part of the problem is that apparently holidays have been barred for the Olympic month (16 days plus a week either side). Given it is not unreasonable for people to want a warm weather break then am assuming a far higher number of holidays will be taken in May/June than is usual.

[MartynSinclair]

It all speaks volumes for automation!

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Has there ever been a successful countrywide govt. led IT automation project delivered? The MOD, NHS, UKBA et al have wasted Billions of taxpayers money on failed IT/automation initiatives.

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