Zhivago

Wheels down last night at about 22.30

Long, long taxi to stand at T1, but still deplaned to a bus

Long, disorganised queues at passport control, with the tensabarriers seemingly there for decoration, and only 2 Border Force agents on the UK/EU line (IRIS, of course, decommissioned, and marked as such; electronic passport gates all closed off)

From plane to clearing passport control took 47 minutes

Oh well, at least the bags will be there, I naively thought! Wrong! Another 30 minute wait for first bag to appear.

From plan to exiting customs took more than 1 hour 15 mins.

OK, it doesn't compare too badly with some airports, but surely LHR could do better than this?

tuff

We had a similar experience at T5 last night – long queues at passport control, no IRIS, ePassport gates having problems. After 45 minutes of waiting for bags we went to enquire to be advised that our luggage had been delivered on to the belt 30 minutes ago. What they hadn’t told anyone that they were on a different belt to the one advertised!

nux

T5 last night was terrible. Flight delayed such that fast track was closed by the time I arrived.

The Non-UK/EU line had one agent for about 30 minutes, then 3 agents. Took about 45 minutes.
The UK/EU line was longer although moving much quicker and had about 4 agents.

seattle29

Very similar experience recently coming in from TXL - from touching down to exiting the airport took 1 hr 45 mins.

Arrived around 10pm, parked at T5C and took the shuttle to T5A, 30 mins to get through immigration with just 2 staff on duty, and an hour to get our bags back.

I've had better in Vietnam

irmster

Landed at LHR just before 11pm Saturday from MAN. Parked at T5B, which is an international stand. Had to wait for a bus - not too long but then no steps available. Captain sorted it by getting the pier connected so we could walk down the pier steps. All seemed rather disorganised.

layz

It would be nice in these circumstances if they could just let those with passports and not collecting luggage (those on connecting flights and some hand baggage only passengers) follow the international arrivals route either to passport control or flight connections and leave the bus for those who have luggage to collect or don't have passports.

Recently on a flight from NCL landed at T5C, what was funny was the captain didn't realise that they couldn't handle domestic arrivals at the C gates until told by one of the cabin crew. He was then really apologetic saying he wasn't happy they allocated him this stand but it was needed so the flight was in position for the morning.

Finally steps arrived and were attached to the rear.

Is there any reason why they can't just use the steps down from the airbridge by default, so we can exit from the front and they don't need to get the steps over?

irmster

'elf and safety' apparently.

I was in 1A - overheard the dispatcher tell the crew when they opened the door that 'she really shouldn't be doing this'.

layz

While I'm thinking of steps, the 737 (at least the 400 series, not sure about the later ones) has its own set of steps that you can use at the front of the aircraft.

Last time on one of the LGW flights I noticed above the door, there was a warning by the switch for the steps saying that the steps had been removed.

Is this the case for the entire LGW fleet or just the case for some? Was it to do with weight saving or were they just totally knackered and not deemed worthy of repair?

I would have thought having an aircraft that carries its own steps can be useful in certain situations.

layz

Can't be any worse 'elf and safety than on my NCL flight, the rain at LHR was very heavy that the stairs would have been very wet and there happened to be lots of elderly people on this flight. The stairs were of the open variety.

A few days earlier, when it was dry, we were provided with a nice covered set of stairs when alighting the PRG flight.

Raldal

There is quite a reduction in the weight of the aircraft if the steps are removed and as most of the BA flights are normally on jetty served stands I suppose they feel that the small number of times stairs have to be used and possibile inconvenience to passengers costs less than money saved in lower fuel burn.