Originally Posted by
Porky Speedpig
In any event there is a representative from the UK Border embedded within the master Heathrow Airport Operational Control Centre so they have forewarning of all movements and expected loads etc.
I fear the only use made of this information is to reduce the officer numbers even more to just meet the "90% through in 45 minutes" target.
Certainly a rail industry similar "target" of 99% of trains will run, which meant 1% cancelled, which was quite a lot given the number of trains in question, was being well beaten by the operations side until they were challenged by the accountants that in doing better than the cancellations target they must be overstaffed, and incurring too high costs.
I believe that the first 12 inbounds that arrive before the 0600 end of night quota are particularly prone to immigration delays because the staff agreement is that anybody on duty before 0600 is paid night shift rate for their whole shift, so hardly anyone is got in at that time. As shift starts at the reporting point and it can be 30 minutes or so before they are at a desk, this has a big effect on early morning arrivals.