Sad news, but far from unexpected. I remember when I first mentioned it on the BA FT thread (having learned the news from friends & colleagues who were working on the project) I was 'poo pooed' about it and told that 'I did not know what I was talking about'. When the IRIS gates have been working, they have been excellent, particularly over the last 24 months or so.

The e-gates are good too, however they are not without their flaws. The gates only work 55 minutes of every hour as they do some sort of 'change of shift'. This is apparently because the gates are monitored by a human. Consequently it is far from fun when you get stuck in the queue during the shift change.