Adguy, I was working on the day you mentioned, and I can assure you it is never normally like that at LBA. It all went wrong as Thomson Airways used a Boeing 767-300 instead of the usual 757-200 on their Palma flight, meaning that the stand plan was messed up due to wingspan issues of that aircraft. This meant that more flights than planned had to be bussed to the terminal, and also several flights landed slightly late and several slightly early (5 x 737 arrivals, 1 x 767 arrival and 2 x 757 arrivals within 45 minutes !!
) in turn meaning a massive bottle neck of arriving passengers between 14.30 and 15.30
I was trying to board a flight from gate 10, as you mentioned when the Malaga queue was snaked WELL past there. Normally at the worst the back of the queue starts at gate 10, so what you experienced was really an exception.
Benchmark times for a 737 load of passengers through immigration is 8 minutes and for a 757 is about 12 minutes. Obviously at peak times two or three flights can be mixed together, at worst around half an hour wait from landing to getting into the baggage reclaim area. You also have to remember that the day you flew back, was in fact probably the busiest day of the year, with nearly ever single flight at capacity.
We get used to abusive passengers, expectations at LBA are far too high, it used to be a dream to fly from (it still is at quiet times) but days like you experienced are proof that the terminal extension is WELL OVERDUE. PULL YOUR FINGER OUT BRIDGEPOINT!