Zorro

Recently I flew from CPT to TXL, taking the airside transfer bus from T3 to T5. As expected, at no time did I go though immigration and passport control in LHR, only in TXL.

However, I noted that I could easily have boarded one of the domestic flights from Gates A1-A6 (on a different ticket?) once I was in the departures area of T5. Is there separate immigration and passport control in EDI or GLA, or is this a way to avoid immigration control for those so inclined?

corporate-wage-slave

No, because the UK and Ireland services have a photo biometric check on departing passengers, and you only get the photo if you have already cleared the UK Border. Connecting passengers either clear the UK Border in the usual way if going via landside, or there is UK Border checkpoint on UK+Ireland Flight Connections.

rapidex

No you could not.All passengers for domestic flights have their photo taken at security.At the departure gate the gate agents reconsile boarding pass and photo before allowing you on board.As you had no photo in the system you would not be allowed to board.

Zorro

So, if I tried to board with a separate boarding pass they would deny boarding becuse that boarding pass had not been registered when entering security control?

NWIFlyer

Yes, correct - it would raise a question, your immigration status would be checked, and they'd find you hadn't passed through the UK border.

corporate-wage-slave

And furthermore your boarding pass wouldn't work either, on any service, domestic or otherwise, unless you had been through the Ready to Fly validation for conformance. So in this scenario it's actually a double check: biometrics and RtF.

DYKWIA

Yes, and they would also confirm the photo, just in case you'd switched the BP with somebody else.

Tobias-UK

I've had 3 recent(ish) experiences of this.

The first I was on my way from JFK to meet a client in FRA. Shortly after I arrived at LHR I was notified of a family emergency (a 999 ambulance hospital admission). I contacted the GGL Team and they offloaded me from FRA and put me on to the next MAN flight which departed in 50 minutes. I was instructed to go to Special Services in the CCR and collect a new BP. When I got to the gates my BP was rejected because there were no biometrics. I had to wait until my passport was inspected by the appropriate people and answer many questions as to how I was boarding the flight without passing the border or having a photograph taken.

The second occasion I was heading home to MAN, after boarding was completed we were told there was a discrepancy with the biometrics, and the data had not been properly saved. They needed to verify that everyone on board matched their biometrics. We were told to disembark back up to departures and reboard, one passenger was denied re-boarding as he had no biometrics stored on the system. We departed 55 minutes late.

The third time I was heading to OSL to attend a 12:00 meeting. About 30 mins before boarding commenced I noticed the App indicate an on time departure but a (creeping) 160 minute arrival delay, the delay was due to traffic restrictions at OSL (heavy snow). That meant the the journey was no longer of use to me so chose to head back home to MAN. Although I was commencing the journey at LHR, I had arrived from MAN the day before to attend a function, and hadn't actually left the UK I was required to 'land' in the UK and head through the UK Border to come back airside so that biometrics could be taken and conformance met.

So yes, as others have said, the system is very difficult to cheat.

Zorro

It seems to work then, I would have been surprised otherwise.

Nevertheless, it must be the only airport/country relying on IT always working correctly rather than physical entry control. In one case at least an "illegal" made it onto the plane.

Tobias-UK

If this is a reference to my example I don't think we can fairly assume an illegal made it onto the aircraft just that one passenger was denied re-boarding because his biometrics were missing on re-boarding. The reason given was that the original BP scan of all passengers was not properly recorded/saved and needed to be redone. One passenger was left behind, I overheard the TRM tell the captain (I was in 1D) that one passenger's biometrics was missing and needed manual verification but there could be a delay. The TRM offered to have the passenger moved to the next flight (in 50 minutes) if the captain wanted to get away, as it could take that long for the manual verification. The decision was made to move that passenger to the next flight in an effort to avoid delaying our flight further.

scottishpoet

Gatwick domestic works exactly the same way but your photo is checked at the entrance to gate 55.

corporate-wage-slave

Or on the outlying gates if going from outwith the main domestic pier. In addition to the fixed positions - of which there are about 8 gates installed - LGW has a mobile biometric trolley, so they can in theory go to a number of other gates too.

One key difference with LGW, along with LHR T2, is that the biometrics are scanned to a specific boarding pass, rather than your underlying Ready to Fly record. So if you get a new boarding pass or swap App/paper boarding pass, it won't work.

scottishpoet

And Gatwick has been using the system much longer than Heathrow

And I have had photos taken on domestic arrivals at gatwick but I think only with U2 as there is or was a common corridor you had to cross to get to domestic arrivals exit

Tobias-UK

Quite, the same at MAN.

armouredant

I'm actually really interested in the information architecture side of how ticketing/RtF/BPs all work together. Is this (publicly) documented somewhere?