Genius1

I'm pretty sure it's a very, very small proportion of passengers. Heathrow has never seen the same level of queuing as Amsterdam, although admittedly queues have been long in all terminals at times, particularly pre-cap. Heathrow operate a call forward solution where passengers close to missing their flight are brought to the front of the queue.

Grumpyflyer

BBC reporting that Heathrow is to continue with its capacity cuts until October 29th.

alex67500

I was going to comment on that, but I presume people have booked away from BA and that they won't hit their capacity, except maybe during the bank holiday weekend. Hopefully after that HAL won't need to "enforce" anything until half term.

onemoretrip

How is the luggage transfer situation at Heathrow now? Are lots of bags still being delayed? I'm travelling from Scotland to Dubai through Heathrow on Thursday and need to decide whether I can check-in bags or travel light with hand baggage only. Thanks!

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

I have not heard of any major luggage issues at LHR T5 recently ( of course travelling with a spare set of clothes in handbaggage is a good idea)

Regards

TBS

TedToToe

Indeed, link here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62550600
It doesn’t say much for their recruitment campaign, assuming there is one in the first place!

cheshirepete

We checked bags through last weekend and everything worked smoothly! Even though the itinerary included AMS, MAN, and LHR! That’s a bad combination based on stories the last few months!

DaveS

From the BBC story, LHR say this gem:

Schind

Back in the old days when they were talking about a third runway HAL were promising 50,000 new jobs at and around the airport. I wondered then where they were going to find all these people. Now.....

Bohinjska Bistrica

It is somewhat surprising John Holland-Kaye hasn't been launched out the door, given the ongoing farce he's presided over.

OldFruity

Talking T5 and baggage again appreciate any feedback re inbound baggage collection times (approx). Leaving Prague on Fri arvo and have a choice of HBO or checked.
Regards
OF

13901

I've returned in the aviation industry, much to my happiness, and I've immediately stumbled in two additional gems of HAL ingeniousness. Both are related to airside access.

People with even a passing interest in the matter know that HAL is in real dire straits with issuing passes for those who need to be airside - I met some crews working landside in T5 who've been waiting for their passes for three months now - thanks to the brilliant decision of firing a lot of the Glasgow-based pass-issue unit with SC clearance.... But now there's more!

Most of my colleagues work in Operations and need to be going airside. Over the pandemic our employer put them on furlough and asked HAL to keep their airside passes valid and current. HAL said to get lost, and those passes were rescinded. Now these guys (and me) would need to go airside, but can't. Even getting an escorted visitor pass is time-consuming, and you can't do it every day, so we can't support the operation in times of need.

The second pearl of wisdom was relayed by OH. She has a crew airside pass, renewed during the pandemic - 2021. Usually, the badges are covered in a transparent plastic film that has the purpose of protecting the badge itself, given that it does get in a fair bit of use every day (it's swiped at the checkpoints, or you slam against it readers, this sort of stuff). Well, theirs isn't. Which means it's getting worn out pretty rapidly. On her last flight two of her team members were being pulled over by security because their passes were marginally worn and not fully visible... due to the lack of this film. I sat yesterday in a meeting with two other (non-crew) colleagues, one with a new pass and one with an old one. The difference was visible, and the new is already fading! The rumour is that it's either a (very large and defective) batch, or it's a new, shall we say, "enhancement". The result is that airside passes are degrading faster than before, people new to renew them earlier than the normal 5 years, and this is adding to the issue.

sondra_finchley

So given the last poster above's information (very interesting!) is this extension in order to hopefully get people clearances and operations ramped up for the holiday travel period? Because I don't know if anyone has pointed out a calendar to BA/HAL, but Christmas isn't too far beyond the end of October.

DaveS

Your typo is closer to the truth.

Not to worry, LHR will soon be providing passengers with confidence ahead of their half-termChristmas getaways

ratechaser