Jaegersss

I hadn't flown BA for many years amd yesterday flew from LHR back to Germany. Since the security check was so smooth, I had more than 1 h before boarding and decided to have a look at the airport. I took the train from A gates to the C gates, but it was not possible to travel back to the A gates with the train. According to the signs, the train only travels back to arrival area.. So I decided to walk the all way back through a long walk way on the level -4. There were few people walking there and it didn't seem to be a "normal" route... I just wonder how it works generally with the transfer from the B and C gates to the A gates.
What I als wondered was that there was no passport control at all. I can remember, that I showed my boarding pass before entering the security check, but not the passport. Was this already the border control?

bisonrav

The UK (and US, incidentally) doesn't require border control passport checks on exit. Really as simple as that.

Flumps

There is no control on exiting the border at LHR. Passports are only checked if needed for the destination and that is an airline check. If hand baggage only it's perfectly possible to reach the lounges without a passport - and get caught out ! (I know someone who did this)

Passports may be checked at the gate but this is purely the airline check to ensure you can enter your destination country.

lcylocal

This is how it works. Most passengers never need to go to B or C unless their flight is departing from there.

Passengers arriving at B or C that are in transit heading for a flight from the A gates take the train then need to go through connections security.

Jaegersss

I saw just a very few flights flying to US and to Hong Kong from C gates yesterday. So most of the flights will arrive at an A gate and only depart from a C gate?

JSM8

Only 2 of the main A terminal gates can take long-haul/wide-bodied aircraft, so most A gate departures (and arrivals) are domestic and European short-haul flights. So the vast majority of long-haul flights leave from (and arrive at) B and C gates. Sometimes short-haul flights use B and C gates too

Hope that helps

GM1985

No, flights arrive and depart from A, B, and C. T5A is mostly short haul arrivals and departures (although sometimes they may be at B or C). T5B&C are mostly long haul gates (though you may occasionally see a long haul plane on an A gate).

Typically, an aircraft that arrives at any given stand will get turned around to operate a different service. So for example I flew a couple of months ago on the BA293 to IAD, departing from a C gate. That aircraft had arrived a few hours earlier as the BA54 from JNB and parked at that gate. However occasionally an aircraft may be tugged on/off stands to/from remote parking or maintenance hangers.

The transit, as you discovered, is unidirectional for departing passengers. Mostly people only go to B or C gates if that is where their flight is departing from. The transit then �turns in to� a unidirectional transit for arriving passengers back to the border and baggage reclaim. As you also discovered there is a walkway back to the main �A� building to keep you within the departures area. You�re right it�s not used frequently, but is a well know �trick� here to use the quieter B gate lounge even if departing from an A gate.

Jaegersss

Thanks for the exlanation! I'm just interested in how it works for a tranfer passenger. For examle if a passenger from the US makes a connection in LHR to Germany and arrives at a C gate, he should ride the train to the arrival zone, get his passport checked by the border control, through the security control and go back to the A gates. However if he wants, he can also walk the talkway to the A gate without border and security control. Am I right?

corporate-wage-slave

No, the bit you are missing is that though they look quite similar, there are actually a pair of passageway tunnels. One for those who are cleared, typically departing passengers, and another for those who are not cleared, typically arriving passengers. There are also security checkpoints in B and C, though they are not always open. So if you arrive into C, you can theoretically go through security in C or B and end up in the "departing" tunnel. If you don't do that then you can't get into that departure tunnel, you're stuck in the arrival tunnel. If you walked from C to B in that tunnel, and tried to go back into B, you'd end up in the arrival corridor along B, but not the departure lounge with the gates above.

See the BA Forum Dashboard and the two threads on the the passageways for all the details.

DYKWIA

Departing and arriving passengers are kept separate at LHR. So, when arriving you are "forced" to go through the connections or arrivals process.

Jaegersss

Thank you all for patiently answering my questions

Captain Schmidt

Transit passengers do not need to clear immigration at LHR so there would be no border control in this scenario unless the passenger in question actually wanted to enter the UK (which they might choose to do in the event that they have a long layover). So, security clearance at LHR yes, border control in the destination country - e.g. in your example, Germany.

Genius1

Passengers connecting to a UK domestic flight will go through immigration prior to security, however.

miklcct

So how does the airport distinguish between domestic connection and international connection from an international passenger, given that the departure area is not segregated? If there is a transfer corridor to the departure without passing immigration, someone can use it to take a domestic flight bypassing immigration into the UK?! That can't be right.

KARFA

no they can�t. The bp for a domestic flight wouldn�t work if you tried to take the international transfer path.