Radiation Station

For someone living in NCL, I never seem to be travelling at the same time as the forum celebrities 😜

ratechaser

Leaving aside all snarky comments about "proper Greggs" being an obvious oxymoron, I can add BHX to the list of airports that have one.

And adding my own props to CWS for the hip and groovy title. He clearly is as up, down, and possibly sick, as those several generations in arrears...

Coffeemadman

None of them were even open when I flew through yesterday.

I had a 250ml water bottle from the flight up though that I forgot about that didn’t flag up on the normal security though, didn’t realise until I was in the lounge.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, one of them (not this one) moaned that it would be quicker going slow track. I don't think we were greatly delayed, it was just the explosives swab, but part of their secondary handling involved putting the tray on the floor and then picking it up off the floor without squatting, which got my "neutral spine" alarm bells ringing. But it will get better.

DaveNCL

Early this morning about 50% were going to secondary. The person in front of me got his case and laptop bag straight through without problems and then mine did the same. I was amazed given the reports here.

Thumbs up for the lounge also, hopefully the walking to an area stops once it’s fully open but I know that’s how they still do it at MAN.

AleTrail

On the Red Eye out of NCL this morning.
Counted about 1 in 4 trays getting secondary manual intervention, each one required a bag or device opening, offending piece to be swabbed and taken to the analyser then re-packed.
At one point the secondary tray queue was so full it blocked the through flow. Counted 16 people milling about waiting for their bags and secondary screening.
On a busy holiday season day this would have caused huuuge lines.
Surely this must be training/teething issues.

The new Aspire Plus lounge is nice - still no proper HP sauce though :-)

Blackjackburger

BA1325 (9.40am) NCL to LHR on 9 January

The 50% pull rate was in evidence again with mine getting through no probs (phone, iPad, assortment of cables, chargers and battery devices in hand luggage) but partners got a pull for swabbing.

new lounge is decent enough with a good range of hot breakfast items albeit tiring a tad from being kept warm. No self service at the bar as in the previous BA lounge but understand given the value seeking holiday clientele it attracts. A pal of mine worked on the refurb so I took a bit of an interest in the general finish and the standard of some of the evidently rushed workmanship was shocking. Big snagging list I feel. Lee Westwood seemed happy enough in there though.

mention for the toilets - very nice and big improvement.

layz

Self service is coming! Currently the lounge is run like the regular Aspire but once it's fully open the mid tier section which BA, KL, etc will be using (which is where the BA lounge used to be) will have a self service bar and improved food.
The current layout is temporary, that's why you have the odd situation of the Pepsi and water dispensers being behind the bar where they'd make more sense self serve.Once the lounge fully opens that area becomes a self service bar for the business class lounge and the attended bar moves back to the regular Aspire area.

Banksy76

I went through on Monday late afternoon and I was the only person in the whole of security. Staff are still learning the machines and the young lady looked quite perplexed when she saw the image of my bag, it didnt go for secondary but asked anyway if they would like to have a look so they could marry up an image to a real view.

I do like the new body scanners, not sure if they will be quicker or slower once passenger numbers start to grow again as we get into the holiday season.

corporate-wage-slave

The wall walkthrough scanner should be faster, but a lot hinges not so much on the scanner, but on the processing. The scan itself is only a split second but the problem is if they only have one control point. What happens in airports in the USA, Germany, KEF with this system is the agent by the wall says "thank you sir, please go to point 2", "thank you madam, please go to point 4". By the time you walk over to point 4 in most cases the processing has completed and the agent by point 4 can say "thank you, you're ok to continue". Over at point 2 the passenger has been subject to a random pat-down on their left shoulder, when he gets there the agent at point 2 is ready for this, has the screen showing the relevant overlay, and can tell the passenger what to do.

Brighterside

Oddly the Newcastle Airport Facebook page has just posted the following

" SPOILER ALERT! Something amazing has been happening at Newcastle International Airport
Brought to you by Aspire Airport Lounges, teams across the site have been working hard to refurbish our Executive Lounge.
Phase one will be revealed very soon, and the lounge will continue to remain open while works are taking place"

It then goes on to refer the reader to some photos and a link to the media release dated Oct 2023 - https://www.newcastleairport.com/new...kaRxFqlZS--gDU

JapesUK

Security was a nightmare this morning, and once again I fell victim to the scanners and ended up waiting in the secondary inspection queue TWICE! First time for a dodgy image, second time for an iPad swab.

Overall rejection rate was probably 10% which is the best I have seen. The time taken for each tray to be processed meant that it was still a significant delay.

The wall body scanners were performing very well, almost no secondary body screening there that I saw. I was told that one of them had broken down already, teething troubles I hope

In total it took fifty minutes from the airport hotel to the lounge which I think is the longest ever at Newcastle.

JapesUK

security delays have made the local news https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news...ould-28445005#

StuMcGrew

Literally just came here to say the same!

KARFA

My bag got pulled twice this morning. First time he spent some time looking at the scan and just said it needed to go thro again, second time he said it was fine and shouldn’t have been pulled again. My patience at 6am was somewhat limited.

I hope they improve soon with experience, otherwise this will become very tedious.

Also the cws spotted lack of trolleys is still and issue.