This seems to be happening more and more with BA, particularly at the outstations. So boarding is announced...but the aircraft is nowhere near ready and the first to board stand and wait 15-20 minutes in a corridor or half-way down the airbridge
At one of my regular outstation destinations it used to be the real exception and was only ever done if the inbound aircraft was going to be late....this is perfectly understandable as it no doubt helps reduce the turnaround time. But lately it seems the norm - the last time time I departed from this airport 10 days ago they announced boarding and started this corridor queue even before the inbound aircraft had arrived at the gate.
Now we all know that it takes BA at least 20-25 minutes to make the aircraft ready after the inbound pax have got off so this seems ridiculous.
They also did it the time before too and it was so early that some pax having gone past the GA and had their BP's scanned, started ducking back under the Tensa barrier from the queue and sitting back down again in the gate area or going to the loo. Once boarding then actually started, the same pax ducked back under the Tensa-barrier and re-joined. Curious as to whether this is a security risk or as a minimum, cause discrepancies on the manifest - some infrequent fliers might be tempted to jump the main queue if they see other pax doing it and not realise those have already been past the GA with their BP.
The whole process at some places just now seems very LCC. At 2 outstations now in the last 6 weeks it also seemed completely unnecessary as the inbound aircraft had either not arrived at all or only just arrived meaning many of the departing pax stood and queued for some 15-20 minutes. 10 days ago we boarded so early the "boarding complete" message to the CC was announced some 20 minutes before our scheduled departure time resulting in the aircraft just sitting idly at the gate for that amount of time
Thought only U2 and FR did this sort of thing....further race to the bottom for BA I fear
