[Anonymous]

[Binman62]

I had the pleasure of attending the opening ceremony of the Paralympics last night and it was wonderful.

I was struck by the volunteers and their boundless enthusiasm and good humour. In particular the security to get into the park was simply brilliant. I arrived at a peak time around 6 pm but there were almost no significant queues, more over the handling of belts off, no water, and the dreaded 100 ml limit was handled brilliantly.

So good was the handling that I propose that these volunteers be immediately hired by LHR and given the responsibility of passenger screening.

Leaving the park at 12.15am we got on the 1am javelin. The organisation was brilliant despite the sea of humanity all trying to get the last trains from central London.

The shopkeepers who own LHR could learn a lot from these unpaid volunteers and it beggars belief that they employ as many dead beats in the role that they do when so many talented and truly customer focused people are obviously available.

[VintageKrug]

Though pigs have not yet started airborne acrobatics, it can’t be too long before they do.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Binman on this one.

BAA runs a shockingly poor service for one meant to be customer-centric; it takes far too long for relatively obvious process changes to be made (for instance moving from 3-at-a-time loading trays to the more sensible 2-at-a-time system now in place).

And to add insult to injury, many of these issues were flagged up pre-opening during the customer trials. Nearly four years lapsed before this was implemented.

To be fair, the Olympics is something of a joyous occasion, with much less handbaggage being taken into the park, and people in a relaxed frame of mind. Plus the screeners are only doing this for a few days, maybe weeks at most, and so are not facing a mind-numbing future in a security role ahead of them.

I can understand that dealing with some of the self-important businesspeople I see negotiating security, many stressed and in a hurry, can’t be that easy.

Gatwick seems to have turned itself around in recent years since GIP took over; I think we can see where the operational changes need to happen to get LHR running better.

Again, BAA is making inroads, increasing the number of machines at T5 (but bonkers that it wasn’t built with more in the first place) and the signage has improved markedly, too). I worry, though, that the terminal is fundamentally short of security lines when we consider we are still in a depressed phase of the economy, and BA is ramping up passenger capacity with its A380 fleet due online at the end of next year.

The planned southern extension of T5 might have to happen sooner; though the direct channel from F check-in to the Concorde Room can’t happen soon enough.

All in all, though, I’ve yet to wait longer than five minutes (oh, once, I think on a transfer from AMSit did take a while, but that was a Bank Holiday Friday) to get through and I’ve used it hundreds of times.

But I have witnessed several bizarre comments to other passengers from the security staff, and lots of unnecessary conversations/iPhone checking etc. when they should be working. Trouble is, they know there’s not much danger of being fired for something minor as it’s not easy to replace staff, who need weeks of security vetting before they can be put to work airside.

[KeaneJohn]

Dont forget that the majority of staff have been provided by G4S (cough) for the Olympic security That said, I thought that processing into the Excel for the Olympics was spot on, 30 lanes open, fast and quick processing. Will be interesting to see if processing is as good at the North Greenwich Arena arena is tomorrow night and the main park on Monday.

On a not different matter, it did surprise me that the BA hospitality reception was not open last night.

When it is open and I pass I am tempted to ask if they have any unwanted/unclaimed passes for Silver Card holders… you can only try.

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