pilot007

When I cleared T2 immigration back in January, the queuing system was woefully inadequate. For UK+EEA arrivals, it was one long queue that then deposits you at the end of the immigration booths, say around booth 30. There were then 10 booths (not all staffed), all the way up to say booth 40. The trouble is, people would wait for a booth to become free all the way at one end, so they couldn't see down towards booth 40. This meant that any border officer at the higher numbered booths would yell and wave for the next person to come over. Some of them were too short to be seen, so they'd have to exit their booth, and walk around to get the attention of the next person; then that person would trudge slowly all the way down to them. I observed that this easily added 30 seconds, sometimes up to a minute (in the case of the officer who had to exit their booth each time) for the person to walk over and be processed. I can't recall exactly the average processing time, but even if it takes a minute to process (which is approx. how long I think it took for me), this means that utilization of the system can be as bad as 50% of the capacity. The solution would be for the long immigration queue to dump everyone into short 2 - 3 person buffers in front of each booth, and for some of the ushers to make sure the buffers are kept full. Anyone with a brain could see this – I don't understand how nobody was doing anything about it.

13901

Queues up to three hours from 5 AM to 8 AM today in both terminals at LHR according to friends in HAL. And we're not talking about thousands and thousands of passengers. Somebody really ought to tell Priti to change tactics.

:D!

This is nothing new and nobody has been doing anything about it for years.

I have seen what you describe when I had to use the non-EU queues before 2015.

I remember in 2018 I arrived at LGW at around 9pm; there were 10 egates open - 5 near the front of the queue, the middle section closed and 5 at the far end. Everyone could see the 5 at the far end while walking through the tensa maze, but from the front of the queue they were hidden behind a pillar.

When people got to the front of the queue they just waited for the 5 gates they could see. And they didn't form a mini-queue behind each gate, which added 10 seconds to each passenger's time as they had to firstly notice a gate was free, then walk up to it. Everyone wanted to get home but they didn't act like it, dawdling around.

The BF officers monitoring the gates from the computer occasionally shouted to people to use all the gates but they were ignored, in the end I did the shouting and then the processing speeded up by 150%.

It's the same at Heathrow, I can't remember what T2 is like any more since I haven't arrived there for so long, but in T5 last summer you got dumped near the gates on the left hand side where 2 or 3 people were waiting for each gate.

But if you just walked to the right hand side you enter into a gate straight away, with the added advantage that it's nearer to the manual desk if you position your passport incorrectly and get rejected.

IAN-UK

Queues can be frustrating places!!


single queues with multiple servers are about as efficient as it gets: those with many servers really need a queue monitor (screen or person) to direct users to vacant positions. Mini-queues reduce the length of the main line, but offer little benefit: indeed, where service time isn't uniform, efficiency can suffer badly.

E-gate mini-queues are sensible because service times are short and uniform Or should be if folk have passport to hand, and manage to follow instructions ......

Dealmaster13

Hi, I don't know if this is the best thread to seek updates, but I'd like to know what the latest situation is and how it's been progressing. Sounds like queue duration varies based on time of day, and ~7 hours queue is rare, 3 hours is common, and less than 1 hour is lucky?

We will be travelling with a newborn, so these queues are particularly unwelcome. I assume having a newborn doesn't warrant any priority in immigration? I read about the original story of the mother feeding on the ground... that would be rough, and something more than a 4 hour wait is painful to imagine.

Any general advice? Maybe fly into Gatwick/Stansted/Birmingham from Madrid? Probable destination is Paddington but TBC. I have Avios to spend but it looks really bad value right now for some reason.

13901

Based on the operational messages that flash on my OH’s phone (that Airport community app I mentioned upthread) the queues are normally up to 3 hr in the early mornings and evenings at LHR T3 and 5. Don’t know about other airports. My OH and all our crew/pilot friends consistently say that the immigration hall as being “busy”.

oh, since at least January they said that there is a Met Police booth next to the glassbox where the UKBF officers thet control the eGates are: everyone has always seen that booth empty.

Cathay1101

Gatwick today quickly descended into chaos as a half-full E190 arrived from Minsk ahead of our half-full 772 from CUN. We hurried off intentionally (luckily door 2L as we were at the rear of the cabin). I'd say if you'd have been in the back of economy you'd have been waiting at least 90 mins. Around 12 officers processing people, including one agent, who wasn't wearing a mask (nor anything to indicate she was exempt), laughing with her colleague about how many people were walking towards the closed e-Gates. ("3 already today, love"). Hardly professional...

KARFA

I don't know the specific reasons for the BF agent not wearing a mask in your example, but they are exempt so legally not required to wear one when perfuming their duties.

Cathay1101

If that's legally-permissible by law, then that's surely the greatest summary of the UK's approach to COVID.

World-leading approach to vaccinating 65 million people, manned by incredibly generous human beings like @cws, but they're mixing everyone from red list countries in the same arrivals hall, failing to enforce quarantine for the vast majority and, best of all, allowing border force agents - the public servants most likely to contract a variant from overseas arrivals - to walk around the workplace without any PPE whatsoever and then presumably return home at the end of their shifts as if life was normal!

If I was one of the thousands of nurses and doctors putting jabs in arms for hours on end I'd be fuming...

You couldn't make it up!

KARFA

yes we all have to do our bit - like reducing unnecessary travel.

GaryK84

Arrived at LHR T2 today at around 5 pm from HEL. It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to clear the UK+favoured countries queue. The 'other passports' queue looked slower and longer.

lhrsfo

And wearing masks in public. Except unnecessary travel is down near zero, whereas wearing masks is so easy to do, so effective but beyond the pale for COVIDIOTS.

13901

It's my biggest gripe. There's NO ENFORCEMENT, no enforcement whatsoever for mask wearing in public. I've given up travelling on the Tube because there's always at least a good 30% of people with no mask, nose sticking out, chin-straps... And that include the Transport Police. I went to a job interview in Victoria the other day and on the way there, in the station, there were three cops, all happily yapping away at the barriers to check for "mask compliance". One without a mask, one with the nose sticking out and the third who'd made a nice chin scarf.

But at the same time if you don't follow quarantine you risk ten years in jail and if you go on holiday it'll be 5 grands. And if you attend a vigil for a woman murdered by an armed police officer, of all people, you get arrested. Oh, and you can go to Durham to check your eyesight.

flyslow

My town has "Covid Marshalls", walking around wearing hiviz vests, sometimes wearing a mask, usually in groups of 3-6, occasionally shouting at people to keep distancing. But not surprised, as even the job description in recruitment add for Marshalls says this:
Signposting members of the public and businesses to government guidance if you believe their is non compliance

DYKWIA

That's disgraceful.

Their?????