Sixth Freedom

Looking on the map, I am sure it was gate A1 in the southwest corner. I don't really mind bus transfers at T5, especially on arrival as the bus comes and goes quite quickly. Bus on departure is more tedious, but I think I get bus on arrival much more frequently. Maybe BAA's tactic is to use bus mainly for arriving passengers and then tow aircraft to bridge stands?

sts603

sts603

:D!

To prevent the problem in the OP from occurring, aircraft could be designated domestic only and international only, at least for whole days. If really necessary, they could be towed between gates overnight. Is there any particular scheduling reason that this doesn't happen? (OK, sometimes larger planes need to be used on domestics, but that isn't very common I believe.) Instead, 150 passengers are inconvenienced for a minor benefit to BA.

Reminds me of one day at university when one lecturer's time was reportedly so valuable that he couldn't afford to take a taxi (at the university's expense obviously) from his office at a different campus to our campus, but instead several coaches were chartered to drive all the students there and we had to make our own way back - apparently 200 student hours were worth 30 of his minutes.

corporate-wage-slave

I think you are perhaps looking at this from a departing passengers perspective (where T5 doesn't have a problem) rather than arriving - the aircraft itself isn't the issue here, the fleet is flexible, the gates are flexible and you can have have a domestc 321 longhaul or previously a 767 longhaul running off gate 8 for example. The problem relates purely to the need to segregate all arriving passengers PLUS the need to segregate CTA (UK) PLUS the need to segregate CTA(Irish Republic). Most of T5 deals with the need to put arriving international passengers through security if transferring, passports and customs if not. There are 8 gates for domestic which don't get security, passports or customs checks and 2 gates for Ireland which get security, no passports but do have a customs check. Oh and biometrics are in the mix too for departing domestic and Irish passengers, but they also get international lounge facilities unlike at some airports even in Europe.

Now if you are still with me, mostly this works fine without buses, I'm well below 5% on their use, usually if the aircraft arrives early into LHR, and I'm more likely to encounter buses in the USA than T5. But T5 is working at beyond design passenger numbers, and when T5 was built there were fewer domestic services. DUB, BHD and INV have all been added. Plus all the international new routes. So I personally think T5 does a reasonable job here on the whole.

SpeedbirdLHR

A1 is at the northwest end of T5A. A23 would be at the southwest corner that you describe. I'm not particularly close to the details, but I believe that international arrivals on the domestic gates A1-A7 can use the jetty and then the internal stairs to the bus. A8 is different in that it is on the boundary between domestic and international and Border Force has agreed that it can be used for both via a system of swing gates with very strict operational requirements.

A23 is for CTA arrivals only and I believe this is the only gate where any arrival other than CTA are required to use the rear stairs. There are a number of factors involved in this decision, including Border Force requirements and the layout of the aircraft stand, being the very end of the building. This sounds more like the stand that was used. Not common to get any arrival other than Dublin on this gate as the number of flights often are enough to ensure full utilisation just for that route.

GM1985

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

We were bussed on the 13th April coming down from EDI ( 2105 arrival). At least we were in CE and had a CE bus for about 7 pax!. My previous arrival also at around 9pm was also bussed. ( both were on A319/A320s)

Regards

TBS

simons1

And you seriously think it has never been considered?

I doubt BA wants the extra logistical hassle of buses either, but sometimes intensive schedules require such things.

KARFA

not quite sure what nationality has to do with this issue? it's a minor issue because it really doesn't happen very often.

on the scale of annoying features I place the recent lack of LPGS in the CCR for a few days as much higher than a bus ride

GM1985

corporate-wage-slave

767s can't use many gates at T5A, they can do gates 8 and 6 I think, so if it can't go there, or there are other plans (given gate 8 switches to non CTA at times) then inbound 767s on domestics do have a higher bus risk.

sts603

DrBernardo

Sorry this comment comes a bit late, but just to point out that you don't need an additional level and the cost that incurs. All you need is an inner and an outer corridor on the arrivals level. The outer one, by the windows, could be for domestic arrivals and lead to the left (towards gate 1), behind that, leading to the right and connecting to the international arrivals side, is your corridor for international arriving pax.

You configure it so that usually, all the jetties feed into the domestic corridor. But on the rare occasion you get an international arrival there, you open the doors to allow that jetty to lead to the international corridor, and you simultaneously shut doors to block off the domestic corridor on either side of that stream of passengers. On the rare occasion that you have a domestic arrival at the same as, and at a higher gate than, the international arrival, all it requires is one staff member to be stationed at the junction and every couple of minutes he stops one group and switches the doors, like traffic lights at a junction.

Cost? An extra glass partition to create the second corridor, plus 6 or 7 gates' worth of doors. But you'd save the coaching cost and, more importantly, an awful lot of passenger, crew and aircraft time...

bd95