Originally Posted by
Swiss Tony
Must admit I heard similar stories of long waits for immigration at Gatwick in August from a colleague who has young kids. But unfortunately that's not a function of the terminal not being fit for purpose - it's understaffing of the border...
The border area is tiny, too few emachines, too few desks with people backing up into the corridoors at peak- symptomatic of the whole terminal. Built (in 1958 according to Wiki) handling under 200,000 passengers p/a. Now handling 25 million p/a. Apart from Satellite which handles I guess no more than a few hundred people at any one time there's been no extension. If you cut straight to the lounge from security, avoiding the main areas and lift from lounge down to gates, don't get unlucky with passport on the way back - yes I can see it working ok, unfortunately that's not what the vast majority experience