HEATHROW
Join Date: Apr 2004
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Thank you gentleman you have confirmed what I suspected.
On a seprate note, knowing what I have to pay for my yearly visa for China, I suspect the same being true in reverse this is a good little earner for the exchequer.
On a seprate note, knowing what I have to pay for my yearly visa for China, I suspect the same being true in reverse this is a good little earner for the exchequer.
Last edited by pwalhx; 4th Jan 2013 at 12:06.
There is now a visa fee and a separate visa service company fee.
Remind me, somebody, just how much budget the various Embassies and Consulates around the world get from the UK government for providing consular services.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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WHBM the use of a commercial organisation as an agent to accept visa applications and return travel documentation to the applicant is not unique to the UK - India and China do the same and the cost to the applicant, as pwalhx notes, is increased accordingly.
It's called outsourcing, and saves government money but at a greater cost to the service user.....
It's called outsourcing, and saves government money but at a greater cost to the service user.....
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As you may have guessed I am very familiar with obtaining visa's for China, you are correct you don't now go to the consulate but in fact to the China Visa Application Service Centres, which surprisingly are based in the same cities in the UK as the Embassy/Consulates i.e. London, Manchester and Edinburgh. If you go to one of these centres (as I do to the Manchester one) you will find they are staffed mainly by Chinese nationals with a few local employees.These are in fact a commercial arm of the Embassy/Consulate and the Visa is issued at these offices.
You can of course pay extra to an independent agency to go to these centres on your behalf.
You can of course pay extra to an independent agency to go to these centres on your behalf.
Last edited by pwalhx; 4th Jan 2013 at 18:13.
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Quote: "Of course if the aviation industry had its own way then the Government would agree to 4 runways at LHR and abolish APD all together, on the premsie that the associated increase in business and GDP would more than cover the loss in APD. But then that would presume we have a right wing laissez-faire government, rather than the leftist social one we apparently do.
Agree with first part. To suggest that Dave's governmemt is "leftist" made me laugh!
As for the HMRC nonsense, it assumes that all destinations are available from ALL airports, or would be if APD was variable. That is where it falls down.
Quote: "I can assure you that the BA commercial team are no fools, and the multiple New York (both JFK and EWR) services operate with far better load factors and yield/aircraft/day than will ever be achieved in opening up operations to Chengdu, Lima, Durban, or any of the other places regularly trotted out as constrained only by Heathrow slots."
New York is an earner and must be maintained, but other new destinations could be the earners of the future, it's not "either/or" in the longterm, hence the need for LHR expansion.
Quote: "If you look at Chengdu, BA's new destination, all visa applications have to be submitted through an independent commercial company, acting as agent. This is a new concept in issuing UK visas overseas in recent years, and forms even more of a barrier to getting a visa than the previous approach of going to the Consulate. It is also a nice little earner for the various commercial companies who get "selected" to provide this service, giving good further income to well-connected former Foreign Office staff who take early retirement on their UK-funded pensions and then go into business providing this "service" for their erstwhile colleagues. I see, looking at some web pages, that all applications are forwarded by the agency to Beijing, rather than dealt with by the consular staff in the provincial cities (so you wonder what they do nowadays). You can imagine what this has done to processing time.
There is now a visa fee and a separate visa service company fee.
Remind me, somebody, just how much budget the various Embassies and Consulates around the world get from the UK government for providing consular services."
If we are looking at visa fees as just "a nice little earner" (to quote that great entrepreneur, Arthur Daley), then do what many other countries do for short-stay tourists from selected countries: visas on arrival, or include it in the cost in the ticket.
That way the administration of processing at each embassy and/or outsourcing fees to third parties is eliminated.
Agree with first part. To suggest that Dave's governmemt is "leftist" made me laugh!
As for the HMRC nonsense, it assumes that all destinations are available from ALL airports, or would be if APD was variable. That is where it falls down.
Quote: "I can assure you that the BA commercial team are no fools, and the multiple New York (both JFK and EWR) services operate with far better load factors and yield/aircraft/day than will ever be achieved in opening up operations to Chengdu, Lima, Durban, or any of the other places regularly trotted out as constrained only by Heathrow slots."
New York is an earner and must be maintained, but other new destinations could be the earners of the future, it's not "either/or" in the longterm, hence the need for LHR expansion.
Quote: "If you look at Chengdu, BA's new destination, all visa applications have to be submitted through an independent commercial company, acting as agent. This is a new concept in issuing UK visas overseas in recent years, and forms even more of a barrier to getting a visa than the previous approach of going to the Consulate. It is also a nice little earner for the various commercial companies who get "selected" to provide this service, giving good further income to well-connected former Foreign Office staff who take early retirement on their UK-funded pensions and then go into business providing this "service" for their erstwhile colleagues. I see, looking at some web pages, that all applications are forwarded by the agency to Beijing, rather than dealt with by the consular staff in the provincial cities (so you wonder what they do nowadays). You can imagine what this has done to processing time.
There is now a visa fee and a separate visa service company fee.
Remind me, somebody, just how much budget the various Embassies and Consulates around the world get from the UK government for providing consular services."
If we are looking at visa fees as just "a nice little earner" (to quote that great entrepreneur, Arthur Daley), then do what many other countries do for short-stay tourists from selected countries: visas on arrival, or include it in the cost in the ticket.
That way the administration of processing at each embassy and/or outsourcing fees to third parties is eliminated.
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 6th Jan 2013 at 02:41.
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Cathay Pacific adds fifth daily flight to London Heathrow
I'm sure many of you will have seen this but Cathay are stepping into the shoes of the departing Air New Zealand operation and launching a fifth daily LHR-HKG rotation. Oddly enough this one won't have First Class but will mean the whole CX B77W will now be seen at LHR. (* takes enthusiasts hat off again )
One wonders whether this might impact the medium term ambition to get back into the Manchester market?
I'm sure many of you will have seen this but Cathay are stepping into the shoes of the departing Air New Zealand operation and launching a fifth daily LHR-HKG rotation. Oddly enough this one won't have First Class but will mean the whole CX B77W will now be seen at LHR. (* takes enthusiasts hat off again )
One wonders whether this might impact the medium term ambition to get back into the Manchester market?
Join Date: May 2003
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You can also arrive in Beijing visa free for 72 hours. I don't think this applies in Chengdu though. Can't say I have met anyone whom has tried it yet though. I will certainly be trying the new LHR-CTU service when it's up and running. It will cut several hours off my trips to CTU, but the fog in the winter months is a bugger. I tried to get to Chongqing in December, but Finnair cancelled the flight due to the weather.
Here in his-pan-hola, the government is offerring residence visas to non-eu citizens, whom purchase property over €160K, and are targeting Russians and the Chinese, specifically.
Here in his-pan-hola, the government is offerring residence visas to non-eu citizens, whom purchase property over €160K, and are targeting Russians and the Chinese, specifically.
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Quote: "You can also arrive in Beijing visa free for 72 hours. I don't think this applies in Chengdu though. Can't say I have met anyone whom has tried it yet though. I will certainly be trying the new LHR-CTU service when it's up and running. It will cut several hours off my trips to CTU, but the fog in the winter months is a bugger. I tried to get to Chongqing in December, but Finnair cancelled the flight due to the weather.
Read about this, AFAIK it applies to Shanghai and Canton as well, suspect it applies to the new Kangaroo route, making stopovers on that route as easy as they are on the traditional routes, SIN, BKK, HKG, etc.. Shrewd move! The UK needs to something similar for visitors from China, it's a potential goldmine.
Quote: "Here in his-pan-hola, the government is offerring residence visas to non-eu citizens, whom purchase property over €160K, and are targeting Russians and the Chinese, specifically."
That's not a lot actually, many home-owners under the LHR flightpath have that much equity on their properties when they've been there a few years (so much for "blight").
IIRC think John Major introduced something similar in the 1990s: anyone bringing in a certain amount (think it was £750,000) from outside the EU could obtain UK residency. Think it still applies, although probably uprated for inflation.
Most countries will let in the overseas rich, it's easy to understand why.
Read about this, AFAIK it applies to Shanghai and Canton as well, suspect it applies to the new Kangaroo route, making stopovers on that route as easy as they are on the traditional routes, SIN, BKK, HKG, etc.. Shrewd move! The UK needs to something similar for visitors from China, it's a potential goldmine.
Quote: "Here in his-pan-hola, the government is offerring residence visas to non-eu citizens, whom purchase property over €160K, and are targeting Russians and the Chinese, specifically."
That's not a lot actually, many home-owners under the LHR flightpath have that much equity on their properties when they've been there a few years (so much for "blight").
IIRC think John Major introduced something similar in the 1990s: anyone bringing in a certain amount (think it was £750,000) from outside the EU could obtain UK residency. Think it still applies, although probably uprated for inflation.
Most countries will let in the overseas rich, it's easy to understand why.
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 7th Feb 2013 at 17:36.
So - revenue is decreasing due to less pax and flights, so we put up charges to recover the shortfall in income, which results in less pax and flights etc etc. Sounds like a sound business plan?
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Heathrow Airport proposes 'to raise ticket prices'
BBC News - Heathrow Airport proposes 'to raise ticket prices'
So according to this report by the BBC Heathrow management want to increase the passenger duty from £19.33 per passenger for 2012-13 up to a possible £27.30 in 2018-19.
Also they made the comment "Heathrow said the increased charges would pay for investment "
Perhap I'm getting to old but I thought that profits and investment was meant for this kind of thing, not fleecing the SLF again.
So according to this report by the BBC Heathrow management want to increase the passenger duty from £19.33 per passenger for 2012-13 up to a possible £27.30 in 2018-19.
Also they made the comment "Heathrow said the increased charges would pay for investment "
Perhap I'm getting to old but I thought that profits and investment was meant for this kind of thing, not fleecing the SLF again.
Call me old fashioned - but I thought shareholders and/or banks should raise the funds for this type of project, and if the project is successful, the shareholders get their payback by increased dividends or share price increase. If it fails, they lose out.
It seems all of the utilities (and LHR) want the end user to fund expansion and infrastructure projects and we just seem to go along with it without a whimper.
It seems all of the utilities (and LHR) want the end user to fund expansion and infrastructure projects and we just seem to go along with it without a whimper.
So how would a proposed T6, RWY3 and RWY4 be financed then? This plan isn't going to exactly win the hearts and minds is it? 
People in big planning/transport jobs in high places earning big salaries, seem to be making an absolute pigs ear of marketing their plans to Joe Public at the moment. HS2 a prime example.
People in big planning/transport jobs in high places earning big salaries, seem to be making an absolute pigs ear of marketing their plans to Joe Public at the moment. HS2 a prime example.
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Mmm, I wonder if the Stansted sale has anything to do with it???
To me this just confirms my views exactly on why BAA were clinging onto Stansted for so long! Now that Heathrow can no longer sponge off Stansted for finance, they urgently want price increases. Funny that really, they must think their customers are immensely stupid!
To me this just confirms my views exactly on why BAA were clinging onto Stansted for so long! Now that Heathrow can no longer sponge off Stansted for finance, they urgently want price increases. Funny that really, they must think their customers are immensely stupid!
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Please stop peddling that nonsense about LHR being dependent on STN. It's laughable. Stansted was paid for by LHR profits, white elephant terminal and all. Nothing wrong with being pro your local airport but that one's off the planet.
LHR is already expensive but consider.
T5A/B/C and T2A/B all built and into service in a six year period. That's not too shabby ad capital investment goes.
LHR is already expensive but consider.
T5A/B/C and T2A/B all built and into service in a six year period. That's not too shabby ad capital investment goes.
Last edited by Skipness One Echo; 12th Feb 2013 at 17:19.