KARFA

Previously A7 and A8 used to be configurable between international and domestic arrival gates. Unfortunately it was decided a few years ago to stop that and these two are only for international arrivals. So with more domestic flights we have fewer domestic arrival gates.

Thanks BA

Krisz

I remember for those days. Distant past though. Also I guess no buses because nothing is really moving. At least it doesn’t break my pattern of all my MAN flight is delayed. If we arrive on time ish then we can still sit an hour on the plane.

Krisz

So left the plane at 14:20. Probably an another 10 min. So overall 50 min delay. And CE still on the plane. I was in row 12.

13901

Were those the 'swing gates' with a door that required HAL to be present to stop people from wandering through the corridor and ending in the Domestic arrivals route? If so I think the closure was a mixture between HAL not being bothered to do that anymore and a few instances of international passengers slipping under the beady eye of the HAL guardian and into Domestic arrivals...

All in all, there is so much scope to make the arrival/transfer experience at LHR better... But I better not get on that soapbox.

kanderson1965

Does it really matter when you depart as long as you arrive at the scheduled time?

KARFA

Yes, but there is still a HAL person there anyway wherever you put the divide to check people going from domestic arrivals to international, so the reverse still needs policing.

I guess it means you don't have to reconfigure gates during the day though between international and domestic arrivals, but then what you save there you end up losing on needs more buses and of course time to get everyone off a flight using steps compared to just being able to use a jetbridge.

ocprodigy

Came here to say exactly this. I'm not sure what the issue here is, it doesn't matter what time you depart as long as doors are open by the scheduled arrival time, surely? What I imagine would be really frustrating for passengers is if due to operations mentioned above, doors are consistently opening 30-40 minutes later than the arrival time. After all, people use the arrival time for planning onward transport and so on. This feels like a non-issue for me.

fluffymitten

The metrics are usually about on time departure rather than on time arrival. I have a hunch that OTA is something passengers are more interested in than OTD (I have no evidence to back that up).

Marking the time of departure or arrival is always going to be slightly contentious but it's usually measured by the off-blocks and on-blocks times which, as discussed above, do correlate well to the scheduled block time (not the in-air time).

If the scheduled block time was just the in-air time then what time would you expect to see on the ticket as your departure and arrivals times to help you plan your journey to/from the airport? I'm scheduled to land at 1400 and we're approaching from the east, landing on the northern runway, it's peak hour so expect 10 minutes taxi and 15 minutes holding for a gate.... Oh no, hang on, the wind has changed direction and we're now approaching from the west... It just wouldn't work

mmogdan

Curiously BA also have longer short haul turnaround times. EZY seem to use 30 minutes and Ryanair 25 minutes. One would assume the turnaround times are also padded, or does BA do anything that the others don’t which requires the extra time ?

BAAZ

Surely this is a good thing and increases the chance of you arriving on time? What with all the uncertainties in air travel (takeoff slots that change, queues to get to the runway, headwinds or tailwinds, having to wait 5-10-15 minutes in the stack before landing, etc) your actual journey time from doors closed to doors open can easily vary by half an hour over the week. The airline quotes the arrival time before which they expect to be able to get you there with a high enough degree of confidence to help with your planning.

Starship73

The practice of 'padding' block times and turnaround times to aid on-time performance is very much a 'double-edged sword' for airlines. The problem is that if you pad out your schedule too much, aircraft productivity takes a hit because you end up finding each tail in the fleet can manage one fewer flight per day in the schedule, which ultimately means you need to buy more aircraft, which makes it much harder to make a profit.

HIDDY

I don't think they are exaggerated that much considering the distances they cover. It certainly helps when it comes to making connections...especially if you have lounge access and need a wee swally!!

orbitmic

Airlines don't exaggerate flight times because it would be counter-productive for them to do so.

If anything, airlines try to minimise airport turnover times because they make a lot more money by flying planes than by keeping them idle on the ground, and that means that they have to try and be as accurate as they can assessing block times because too short and they risk paying compensation and needing to reorganise, but too long and they lose money.

skipness1E

Why? If they're Intl Arrivals only nowadays, why not just close access from Domestic arrivals entirely?

KARFA

As in someone sat at the glass doors between A6 (the last domestic gate) and A7 (the first international gate). If you are arriving from a domestic flight and going to say T234 so heading for the airside bus you need to go from the domestic arrivals area past that person in to the connections area, and then down to the airside buses. The Hal agent will check whether you have a bp or something to show you should be going that way.

And of course for the reasons noted by 13901, they are there to ensure no ones goes the other way so from international arrivals/connections in to the domestic arrivals area. If they did they could just walk out to landside and bypass immigration.