London Luton

[fireblade2000uk]

I had the misfortune to fly there last week (thanks BA) but thoroughly enjoyed my flight with Wizzair. What I wasn't prepared for and neither, seemingly were LTN, was 2 international flights passengers trying to get through immigration. 3 staff on duty who appeared to want to scan every EU/EEA or CH passport presented to them. Vacant desks everywhere. It took almost an hour to get through. A real welcome back to Blighty! Now I know that they're just doing their job, but please, the airport can't have been surprised that international flights were inbound? They must have realised with a Bank Holiday weekend about to start that their airport would be busier, perhaps they were hoping for outbound and not inbound slf!

[pabely]

Shouldn't this be directed to the Boarder Agencies, not Luton Airport who man these facilities as they do at any airport?

[Capot]

It's up to the airport, repeat airport, to make sure that the facilities for immigration controls are such that passage through them can be swift, efficient and painless, and then to use all means at its disposal, including going to the Minister responsible, if the Borders Agency fails to manage things properly.

At Luton you have an incompetent management who do not give a toss about their dreadful facilities (even a different layout would improve things immensely, no cost involved), and a BA team whose attitude and behaviour is as bad as it gets anywhere, and that's saying a lot.

The result is the appalling state of affairs that you have noticed.

[ab33t]

its the airport authority that provide the info to the customs

[PaperTiger]

its the airport authority that provide the info to the customsand the borders agency who decide what to do with it (if anything).

LHR 2115 arrival - 24 booths, 3 of which were manned. Several abandonments to deal with umm... passengers of interest, 98 minutes before yours truly got to be processed. LHR is not LTN yet this happens regularly.

Why I stay home most of the time now.

Muppets.

[davidjohnson6]

Is there really nobody who can give either the Border Agency or UK airports a kick up the backside to get this handled better ?

If it's the responsibility of airports, then the CAA or Dept of Transport presumably can twist a few arms if need be. If it's the Border Agency, then presumably Govt ministers at the Home Office can bang heads together. If it's both parties, then presumanbly a minister at the Home Office and a minister at the Dept of Transport can jointly deal with this

But surely *somebody* can do something ?

[PAXboy]

davidjohnson6But surely *somebody* can do something ?Ah, No, Sorry. But no one can do anything.

You see, it started about 25 years ago when the then Conservative govt invented the idea of the Agency. The whole purpose of govt agencies is to distance the minister from the bit that is not working. The Agency is, apparently, merely funded by govt and instructed by govt but govt has no responsibility. Agencies are meant to know what they are doing so that, when it goes wrong, the Minister who used to be responsible (in a little old thing we had called 'cabinet government') can tell the newspapers (not parliament) that they have given the highly paid civil servant a good talking to and that everything is now all right.

This means that minister don't have to resign nearly so often. The Recent Labour govt LOVED this idea and expanded it enthusiastically.

There is no way back that I can see. This is why the one thing that Cameron got right was the phrase 'Broken Britain'. I could not agree more, if only he was going to be able to do something about it but the UK administration has been comprehensively fractured into tiny pieces by both govts of the last 30 years, that the govt no longer have the levers of power. In fact, nobody has them.

Sorry to be so pessimistic, I must have lived in this country for too long.

[Plannerman]

This situation seems to happen at LPL and MAN - the two airports I travel through most often - on a regular basis. The attitude and general slowness of the BA staff does leave a sour taste in the mouth, particularly as I will have inevitably been welcomed into my foreign destination with a smile on the way out. The lengthy queues for passport control also seem to be a uniquely British phenomenon, I don't recall queuing as long anywhere else.
Although I would point out that it isn't just BA staff at airports - the sheer miserableness of customs/BA at Portsmouth ferryport has to be seen to be believed.

[ExXB]

When you say BA do you mean Border Agency or British Airways. From the context I would say the former but BA takes a lot of (sometimes justified) slagging here, so you never know.

[radeng]

The other advantage (?) of agencies is that they can be removed from teh civil service, thus reducing the number of civil servants (always sounds good!) and pension costs. It used to be that the civil service paid less than industry, but offered job security and a good pension. These days, it still pays less at the lower levels, but there's no job security and the pension gets chopped once it becomes an agency or whatever.

Heathrow T5 is just as bad, plus Bloody Awful Airports runs(?) it.

[JEM60]

FIREBLADE It's not 'Thanks BA', it's 'Thanks selfish striking cabin crew!!!'
Also, I have to say from my experience that T.5 has been brilliant for my 3 recent long hauls.

[Avman]

It all comes down to 'minimum staffing' to reduce costs. I don't condone it but, why pay additional officials an extra 2 or 3 hours duty time in order to expeditiously process two late evening international arrivals when it's much cheaper to just keep a couple on and let the pax endure the burden of cost saving?

[Skipness One Echo]

Luton Airport last Saturday back from Geneva on easyJet. Nice flight, on time, tin shed arrivals but Borders Agency was manned and passport was RIGHTLY scanned and through to arrivals.

I wanted to splash some cold water on my face as Geneva had been remarkably hot. This simple request was of course beyond the pale, they had hot water in the bathrooms and nothing more. How did planning become so utterly useless? Welcome to a country where you can't even splash water onm your face to freshen up. It made me despair, almost as much as the African toilet attendant looking at me like a moron for asking him to pass my comments on.

[Tolsti]

Not sure if IRIS is installed at Luton... sure helps at LHR at 0700 when shed loads of Far and Middle East planes arrive at once

UK Border Agency | Using the iris recognition immigration system (IRIS) (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/travellingtotheuk/Enteringtheuk/usingiris/)

[Evanelpus]

I had the misfortune to fly there last week (thanks BA) but thoroughly enjoyed my flight with Wizzair. What I wasn't prepared for and neither, seemingly were LTN, was 2 international flights passengers trying to get through immigration. 3 staff on duty who appeared to want to scan every EU/EEA or CH passport presented to them.

Hmmph, try arriving there around midnight when 3 or 4 bucket and spade flights have landed within a short space of time of each other. Nothing new for Luton, it's one of the things that really bugs me about the place.

[compton3bravo]

All I can say to everyone involved in passing through any UK airport is welcome to the United Kingdom in the 21st Century - not a nice place anymore I am afraid - that is why and hundreds of thousands of British people have left and now live away from the place and only travel back when one really has to and for the shortest possible time.
Hopefully with a new government in place (not being politically biased here) some things might improve - we live in hope!

[fireblade2000uk]

No IRIS at Luton yet, neither LCY but at least LCY normally has a good showing of Border Agency staff. :D