RohanDXB

I will be traveling to Ireland and England in August and I'm facing a dilemma on how best to get to London from Ireland considering the amount of travel chaos at airports these days (that I expect will continue into July / August too). The trip will originate from County Clare. The choices are

SNN-LHR: Shannon airport is obviously much closer but then I would travel to LHR and deal with (potentially) massive queues at immigration and then commute to my hotel in Shoreditch
DUB-LCY: Longer trip to DUB but I imagine border checks at LCY will be much faster and then a shorter trip to the hotel in London

Until a few days ago I was leaning toward the second option and didn't really mind the couple of hours to travel from County Clare to Dublin airport - in order to avoid dealing with LHR immigration. However recent reports of horrific crowding at DUB have made me doubt whether flying out of there is the best choice anymore if I have to reach the airport 4-5 hours before my flight.

I am mentally prepared for overcrowding and chaos in both choices but would at least like the consolation of having made the more optimal choice in these circumstances.

Ro

Gagravarr

Immigration queues at Heathrow seem to most have gone away, they were mostly a thing when Border Force wanted to check 5 pieces of paperwork with a fine-tooth comb. Since they've pushed all the covid docs checks onto airlines, and then scrapped them, it's generally not an issue for people able to use the e-gates. Assuming no IT crashes, and assuming you don't have young children with you, it's generally fine. If you have to queue up to see a UKBF officer (eg wrong nationality for e-gates, travelling with kids too young for e-gates) then it can have a wait

Main queues right now seem to be related to lack of staff for security screening and baggage handling. Also pre-emptive cancellations due to lack of staff for cabin crew and baggage handling. In many cases now for the UK, they've finally been hired, but are sat at home doing nothing because the government agency doing the security screening is taking many many months to issue airside passes.

I'd say don't worry about queues at UK immigration, worry about security queues (maybe better an SNN than DUB?) and the chances of the flight being cancelled (might be better at DUB?)

tjcxx

Entering U.K. from Ireland, you will not go through immigration. There is a special flow for Ireland flight arrivals that bypasses immigration and puts you in the international baggage hall so that you do go through customs.

RohanDXB

Wow! I hadn't considered the implications of the CTA for this route. Since my passport requires me to have visas to enter both Ireland and the UK, I just assumed that there would be some form of border controls. This makes my entire concern quite redundant and flying from SNN is a lot more practical.

Given the security queues at DUB and no immigration at LHR, SNN seems to be the better option with the only remaining risk being that of delays / cancellations. Something for me to think about now.

Ro

UKtravelbear

Strictly speaking the UK-ROI CTA only applies to UK and ROI citizens. And you still need to show your passport / valid ID to show that immigration control (questions such as purpose and length of visit) does not apply to you.

So on arrival into Ireland you will see an immigration officer.

If you have a visa then you should make efforts to seek out an immigration Officer on arrival back into the UK so your departures and arrivals can be correctly recorded.