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Heathrow Airport 'may not cope during Olympics'

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Heathrow Airport 'may not cope during Olympics'

Old 11th Apr 2012, 21:03
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Devil Heathrow Airport 'may not cope during Olympics'

No? Really?? That's a shocker!

BBC News - London 2012: Heathrow Airport 'may not cope during Olympics'

Culture Select Committee chairman John Whittingdale said not enough thought seemed to have been given to ways of coping with long queues at immigration. He said the UK Border Agency had suggested it had insufficient money to open all of its passport stations.
Lucky they thought of all those things when they planned it.
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Old 11th Apr 2012, 21:15
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If queues at Immigration are the only failings at Heathrow I imagine they'll have surpassed the expectations of anyone who travels frequently and has seen how things can be done!
Mr Whittingdale continued: "While visiting tourists will understand that the Olympics is a busy time, if the wait (at immigration) is in excess of an hour it may deter tourists from returning.
FWIW, I would call an hour's wait little short of disgraceful! Doesn't any of the Air Passenger Duty find its way into funding government-required services like.....Immigration?
 
Old 11th Apr 2012, 22:08
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Doesn't any of the Air Passenger Duty find its way into funding government-required services like.....Immigration?
Between that and the PSC you would have thought so, but knowing the accountants it doesn't work that way, especially as both are payable on the outbound leg. If more people are getting routings that mean outbound to London but then train or loco to CDG or AMS for a return home that avoids LH APD, maybe there is a short fall?
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 02:43
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Is an airport of idiocy. What is it now 50 pounds to get out of? That's 25 pounds to get in.... spent 1 1/2 hours standing in line once... won't be going anywhere near anything called Olly.
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 08:09
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They really need to fine tune the immigration clearance at large UK airports. Today there is an EU/EFTA queue and an "Everyone Else" queue.

The everyone else queue should be divided into 'those needing visas' and 'those not needing visas'. In my case I am a Swiss resident with a Canadian Passport married (almost 20 years) to a British national. In other words of little, if any, risk of overstaying and who would probably be given leave to reside if I ever asked for it.

I often get stuck behind a flock of ex-USSR call girls, the large non-English speaking families, or a bunch of people who don't know how to fill out a landing card. I rarely take a minute at the desk, after waiting for up to an hour.

I would be willing to preregister (and even pay a fee) for speedy-clearance (tm).
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 10:26
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I thought that Heathrow was pretty much running at full capacity pretty much all the time, so where will the "additional" throughput of passengers come from? Is this just the regular scare-mongering, or is there really going to be a problem....
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 10:44
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The Olympics are from late July to early August when half the UK is on annual holiday anyway.
Yes, Heathrow and much of London's infrstructure will be put under strain, but it's really just 3 weeks of peak activity. People will grumble and moan, but they will all know it's a short term one-off thing, be a bit more tolerant than usual and that everything will largely return to normal by late August.

Heathrow's see far worse when snow has been dumped on runways just before Xmas in recent years and swathes of flights have been cancelled. People will cope.
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 12:21
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Larger capacity aeroplanes. For example SQ is going to A380s for all of their 3 daily flights. I would imagine that a number of European airlines are going to be substituting some wide-bodies for their regular flights.

In addition a lot more visitors, from visa required countries, are going to be coming increasing the average dwell time significantly.

While I recommend avoiding Heathrow at the best of times, these will not be the best of times. You would be insane to enter the UK here. Try Bristol, or Southampton, or the Orkneys.
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 12:43
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This is a fairly big political issue in the UK right now, so I suspect they wil throw everything they have at it to avoid negative stories and pictures of big queues during the Olympics.

Then once the Olympic visitors have gone home we will be back to the usual mess and nothing will change except that it will continue to get worse. Heathrow is a disgrace.
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 13:17
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I thought that Heathrow was pretty much running at full capacity pretty much all the time

In fact most of the infrastructure of the UK - internal transport, utilities, health, welfare - is running at full capacity and the slightest little thing throws it all into chaos. And the Olympics isn't slight nor little.....
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 17:46
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davidjohnson6 -

Well, it may just be for three weeks for you, but for the majority of people who live and work in London it's for a very great deal longer! Include the paralympics for a start!

Already large numbers of London businesses are being "encouraged" to get their employees to "work from home" for the duration - that will be really good for productivity! Recent news stories have highlighted the enormous disruption to businesses close to the "exclusion zone" which will effectively be shut down by the restrictions on access for the majority of normal trading hours. Many think they won't survive!

Add to that the fact that many central London businesses which depend on tourism have such a downturn in advance bookings for the summer that they are shutting down; include many London theatres in this.

I live in (outer) London, and I won't be going anywhere near my usual "haunts" for the duration, and taking my spending elsewhere. Hardly good for the "recovery"! And believe me, I'm not alone!

The problem with all this is that the politicos HAVE to talk it up. Men who ride tiger can never dismount. This ones going to bite them!
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 18:46
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rgs - I live in zone 4 in London.
Because schools will be on holiday during the Olympics and Paralympics, many families may well be on the beach anyway. A lot of people who might normally have spent their annual holiday touring the UK will expect the Olympics to cause chaos and decide to go to a different country instead. Finally, I'm expecting that because of the Olympics, people will be a little more tolerant of transport snarl-ups, e.g. at Heathrow.
Fianlly, while the Paralympics involve the same level of logistics, I would expect that the Olympics will be the bigger draw to many of the crowds.

Maybe immigration at Heathrow takes an hour rather than 10 mins - this is not the end of the world
The point I'm trying to make, is that while Heathrow and London's infrastructure will be stressed, it'll cope - I'm not expecting any huge failures, and I think the story about Heathrow not coping is just a journalist trying to put together some words to make a story that attracts eyeballs.

As to whether the Olympics are *desirable* for the economy, that's a completely different subject !
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 19:31
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Maybe immigration at Heathrow takes an hour rather than 10 mins
I admire your optimism David but this week has seen, at times, two hour plus queues to get through immigration at one of the Heathrow Terminals ( and the source for that information is personal observation by myself and colleagues - and before you ask the obvious question I emphasise that non of us is UK Border Agency Staff)). I can't see any reason for the situation improving this side of July unless more Border staff are put in place on the right desks at the right time of day. The situation hasn't been helped by the brilliant timing of the phasing out the IRIS system, which has forced more UK passport holders into going through manual processing. So, no, sadly, I don't think this is

just a journalist trying to put together some words to make a story that attracts eyeballs.

Last edited by wiggy; 12th Apr 2012 at 19:44.
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 19:43
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unless more Border staff are put in place on the right desks at the right time of day,
Where will they get them from? How, where, and by whom will they be trained in time? What security clearance will they get.

Given that the Home Office has a great track record in employing illegal aliens, I do not expect that standards will be very high. I can see this as heralding a wave of illegal immigrants who will take advantage of the pressure under which the UKBA staff will find themselves, and that's without even taking into account athletes and spectators who enter the country legally and overstay and disappear into the cesspit.
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 19:48
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Tableview

Fair questions, whilst not a fan of the newspaper it was the first relevant and vaguely accurate link that came to hand:

UK Border Agency expects to axe 5,000 jobs | UK news | guardian.co.uk

Article written in 2010......
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Old 12th Apr 2012, 23:32
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They will doubtless have planned to schedule staff in from other airports (GLA/EDI/BRS/etc) and have hotels booked. So LHR won't be the only place with longer queues. Just a guess but there is nowhere else to get them. Some mgmt will go on the desks too.

By the way, it's not just the Paralympics that extend the date on, it's the arrival of all the officials, contestants, medical, support and govt hangers on from dozens of countries arrives in an increasing stream, that brings the date forward too. It's not just 'three weeks'.
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Old 13th Apr 2012, 01:05
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By the way, it's not just the Paralympics that extend the date on, it's the arrival of all the officials, contestants, medical, support and govt hangers on from dozens of countries arrives in an increasing stream, that brings the date forward too. It's not just 'three weeks'.
For Paralympics, multiply number of contestants by x, reduce spectators by y - not sure what the actual factor is, but it is a different loading compared to the main event due to all the different categories.

Even with a peak loading during the 100m final, London should still be able to cope, as many cities far smaller have held the Olympics in the past. At it's busiest, what effect is 100k on a system that handles 3m+ people per day - surely the loading problems are the pinch-points around the event locations and key junctions.

I believe the govt is claiming hs2 will also result in an extra 100k or so visitors to London each day - but only around 2% extra load on the tube (network wide). Simples!
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Old 13th Apr 2012, 05:28
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They will doubtless have planned to schedule staff in from other airports (GLA/EDI/BRS/etc) ........ So LHR won't be the only place with longer queues. ........... Some mgmt will go on the desks too.
Two things worry me about this. The fact that the chaos will be nationwide means that the potential for illegal entries is increased, and as for management going on the desks, they're the bunch of bozos that caused all the problems previously and are probably less competent than the workers.

Much as I dislike the Israelis, I have enormous respect for the way they do things, and I'd get Mossad to do it. It would be done with surgical precision and not the least worry about upsetting people on grounds of political incorrectness.
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Old 13th Apr 2012, 09:56
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Having waited for 65 minutes at Chicago with only 2 immigration desks manned for aliens, Heathrow cannot claim to be the worst. But London and its airports during the Olympic money wasting farce are to be avoided at all costs.
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Old 13th Apr 2012, 10:45
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'Here, Here' Radeng. If I had the time and money, I would leave the country for two months and stay in the smallest atoll possible. I won't start on the subject of the stupidity of the Olympics, because I'll never stop. The one thing it is not about is sport.
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