Shuttle_Endeavour

We checked in at 11am Saturday morning, and there were no queues to check in. The only real difference was it seemed to matter what zone you checked in at, depending on your destination. Process was largely unchanged though, with little human interaction required.

SpeedbirdLHR

Weekends are a particular challenge due to the flight schedule - lots of Greek and Italian services which require extra checks and the high volumes of families. This is not helped by those who turn up hours early which helps drive congestion in the building. There were definitely lots of staff around to extent that extra hosts were placed in some areas to assist with managing customer movement. That picture looks to be a snapshot of the Zone F area where the temperature checks are being done for those services that need it. Knowing the flight schedule, and the time this picture was taken, that would have been around the time that several flight opened for that zone.

With the move of other carriers into T5 and the extra checks required, there is now only one "bag drop zone" for economy customers, which means that the several flights with no restrictions are being forced into a limited space.

On the premium end, the challenge is different in that you have a mix of customers who are on flights with no extra checks, mixed in with those who require all of the various checks for the different destinations. Transactions for those with extra checks are much longer than before and many require calls to confirm specifics.

T5 on weekend mornings is processing more customers than T2 across the day. Sundays is starting to see another peak of mid afternoon short haul departures.

While these additional checks are required, this will continue to be a challenge with transaction times especially as OLCI needs to be restricted to allow for these checks.

James91

I flew to Santorini today and yes there were substantial queues but compared to two weeks ago (when I was going to KEF), it was far better. More staff on both the desks and managing the line (I got pulled to the front for my flight), two weeks ago it was a nightmare. I did see a family get rejected at check in and I was DYING to find out what was happening but I was too far away .

rontse

Can I check all the bags in on my own (probably go to T5 after kids gone to sleep)? My own baggage allowance can cover all our baggage. BA.com says everyone on the booking needs to be there, but I’m sure people allow to check in at different time even on same booking? Thanks.

BAeuro

If T2 isn’t as busy, then why are HAL moving all these airlines across to T5? It seems ridiculous that even more airlines are coming into a terminal which can’t cope at weekends.

Are they planning to do anything to sort out these queues? Or will it be a case of accepting it until summer is over?

13901

It’s always been like that as far as I can tell: T2 was designed for a capacity it seldom, if ever, reached. Not for nothing it’s still chugging along with a 1960s baggage handling system, T1’s...

binman

this is exactly the issue. They know exatly how many passengers, how many flights but simply don’t resource correctly. They have also changed their procedures such as only arriving 2 hours before departure.

I think it may have been but it’s important to emphasise this was not limited to that zone. That was the queuing in every zone from A to First Wing at 7:30. It was 8:45 before I passed security.

there needs to be less explanation and far more condemnation. This is a public health emergency and the is no point in disembarking a plane by row number and telling people who have sat cheek by jowl for hours to keep 2 metres apart when doing so, if you penned them up in their thousands before putting them in the flight!

BA mitigation on board is commendable but it’s farcical when the procedures to get to that point are so utterly broken.

DYKWIA

BA still have lots of people furloughed, and thus not having to pay them. If they recall more for the one-morning-a-week rush, they'd need to start paying them.

ENTP

Err what about flexible furlogh?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/f...e-starts-today

DYKWIA

Good point, I withdraw my allegation

Steve_ZA

I did see a letter online a few weeks ago asking for staff volunteers to switch from furlough to flex furlough. Cannot find it now but if I recall correctly it was referring to front-line roles at LHR and there was an implication that insufficient volunteering would lead to mandatory switching. I assume that this process is still working itself out, particularly the 'mandatory' part which could be tricky due to the poor state of personnel relations.

CharlotteC

Perhaps they hadn’t filled in their locator form if going to Greece?

londonba2014

China Southern moving into T5 from 5th August. Believe they operate into LHR with an A380 so will do wonders for the queues...

FlyerTalker39574

If they fly from LHR in the evening, there shouldn’t be a problem.

GumshoeW12

They depart LHR at 2235. Today there’s only one flight scheduled to depart from T5 after 1900. I suspect queues won’t be a major problem.