BA have updated BA.com and sent notifications to some travellers to allow more time when departing certain European locations for London.
Originally Posted by BA.com
Airports in several European countries are experiencing some delays at Immigration control points due to extra checks on both arriving and departing customers.
For customers departing from European airports on flights to the UK, please allow extra time for your journey through the airport. For customers arriving at some European airports you may experience longer queues than normal at a busy time of year.
Our flights are continuing to operate as planned, but we are sorry for the delays you may experience on your journey through some airports, which are outside of our control.
BA have told the media that the airports showing problems in this area are:
BCN - Barcelona
LIN - Milan Linate
LYS - Lyon
MAD - Madrid
The other airports that have been reported elsewhere as causing problems are:
BRU - Brussels
LIS - Lisbon
PMI - Majorca
AGP - Málaga
ORY - Paris - Orly
The immigration and emigration processes are taking longer more widely but in many cases it's not really causing problems. The cause of this is an EU wide requirement to ensure all non Schengen arrivals and departures are scanned and checked electronically, rather than given a visual check.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40824027
BCN is a longer running story, connected with industrial action at the airport, more details here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ol-delays.html
Note that despite the points raised above, getting to the airport very early is unlikely to help, if you have checked luggage, since I suspect LIN and LYS will still only open up approx 2 hours before departure.