Monopolistic BAA strikes again
 

The chaos at Stansted every morning is because it has taken on far too much traffic. BAA seem determined to undercut their main rival, Luton, to secure new business which they are simply unable to service. They undercut by the simple expedient of cross-subsidizing from hugely profitable Heathrow and Gatwick.

Where people actually want to fly from (north of London) is Luton. Unfortunately for the travelling public, Luton is controlled even now by the moronic Luton Borough Council, who are holding up the investment the airport's new owners want to make.

No airline actually wants to fly from Stansted, they do so because there is capacity available on the (subsidized) cheap.

No airline actually wants to fly from Stansted.....................:confused:

Forgive me for asking but do you speak collectively on behalf of ALL airlines operating at the moment?? Or as i suspect its your personal opinion.
Yes the ques on some days are pretty bad bad and causes quite a bit of disruption however lets be honest do the airlines really care as i know Ryanair were asking passengers to pay for a whole new ticket if they missed their flight and EZY will ask sometimes for the transfer fee, hence why they dont scream and shout too much about it because there just lining their pockets.
Plus the recent problem has only arisen since the events in August so are having to adapt to a new way of doing things so hopefully soon the rough patch will be over and back to a smooth running operation.

Stop making excuses!!!

Other airports have had to adapt since 10th August and have done so with the minimum of disruption to passengers. The situation at Stansted is disgraceful. If people check-in on time then the least the airport can do is to provide the facilities in order for these passengers to catch their flights.

It has been over 2 months since the initial alert it is time to stop making them an excuse for the BAA's inability to provide a functioning airport.

In no way am excusing what the airport is doing, I myself work for one of the handling agents and not BAA so have experienced first hand the chaos that arrises on the days when the staffing level is extra low and unable to cope.
As far as I am aware BAA took on temp staff for the busy summer time and towards the end these contracts ran out and yes BAA made a huge misscalculation in the way the new security measures would affect this particular airport, and I couldnt agree with you more in that all the other airports dont seem to be suffering from this problem however its just the way it is and they are already recruiting new permanent staff. It is also a case of quality not quantity, if for example BAA did a massive recruitment drive and took anyone that went for it they could have huge problems if a month into it they find the staff are not any good, chaos would happen again and mistakes would be made which being an airport can cost peoples lives.
In a month or so the sutuation should be ok and BAA will be able look at this as a big lesson. All busineses make mistakes just as people do and some mistakes are bigger than others but all mistakes are there to learn from. :ok:

BAA plans terminal security overhaul
 

And what evidence do you base that on?

Personally, I prefer to fly from Stansted because it is the most convenient for me. Second choice is Heathrow, third choice is Gatwick. You only get me into Luton kicking and screaming if I have no other choice of carrier. And yes, I live north of London, Essex to be precise.

Aviance
 

Sorry to butt in to this Security Thread:zzz: but I heard today (as you do) that Aviance are now reconsidering getting back into handling pax at Stansted. Anyone know if this is true

Who wants to fly from Stansted?
 

Predictably, my posting has provoked the Stansted brigade into complaints.

I said: "Where people actually want to fly from (north of London) is Luton." That is based on the well-researched fact that Luton has the largest catchment area of any airport in the UK except LCY and Heathrow. It is also based on surface accessibility (the M11 peters out north of STN, and the rail link is a dead end), whereas the M1 continues past LTN to Milton Keynes, Northampton, the east Midlands and Yorkshire, and Midland Mainline/Thameslink serve the south coast, south London, central & north London, Bedford, Kettering, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, etc. There are also 6 National Express coach links to north, south, east and west.

I guess there are a few Essex men for whom Stansted is easier to access, but you can say that about Kentish men preferring Lydd. The fact remains that Luton is better placed, but has been severely disadvantaged by the accident of ownership.

I said "No airline actually wants to fly from Stansted"; possibly a slight exaggeration,:} but over the last fifteen years, most of the airlines now at Stansted chose Luton initially, but were either bribed away by BAA corrupt practices, or feared future lack of capacity at Luton caused by the uneven planning regimes covering these two airports. Go originally planned operations at Luton; Ryanair and TNT made Luton their London base until bribed into Stansted by BAA; Sky Europe preferred Luton, and FlyGlobespan is the latest in a long line to have to go to the wilds of Essex, despite preferring Bedfordshire.

More pax security checks incompetence
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6079250.stm

OK BAA Stansted. You have screwed up the pax's half-term holidays by your bungling handling of security checks (see so many posts above) which meant that many missed their flights.

And then you have the barefaced cheek to come up with a ange of excuses like:

"It's the first half-term holiday since the new regulations" (ignoring the fact that they were in force during much of August, the peak holiday month).

You knew how many pax are expected each day.

The airlines have NOT increased their schedules this week.

And yet you cannot have the staff in place to process the expected numbers.

When will the airport manager and the security manager at Stansted finally be rumbles by those at BAA HQ and be replaced ? Or is it a case of "Never mind, their costs are within their budget, so that's alright then".

I think problem is that with increased Security measures STN is putting thru too many pax at peak times that one terminal and too few staff can cope with. The other airports mentioned have more than one terminal with each processing less than STN and probably more staff to deal with it.

Heard that more Security staff are on the way so things can only get better, time will tell.

Lgs6753
 

"Take a deep breath, and get over it!"
I too live in London, and I know what my first choice would be! Stansted Anyday :D
And please state your sources???
No cos we're out numbered by the Luton thread who can't bare to not see Luton at the top of this list daily!
Get a life! :ugh: :ugh: :ugh:

Nice one! Ive always thought that!

Typical old luton fanatics, bitter.
Sour grapes never win!

I dont think bribery was the case with the said airlines, probably offered a more attractive package at STN. More attractive airport maybe?

Its time that you guys really do stop moaning about the lack of investment and realise that there maybe a reason for it?
Theres alot for LTN to do before it can truly be up there with STN!

I agree STN is a better airport than LTN, but thats just my own view.
STN and LTN might go head to head with the new airline Silverjet,
and a route that is due to start in Apr 2007 STN-BDA this route
will operate under the name Flyjet or Silverjet,
It will be interesting to see, if operated under the name Silverjet,
which airport LTN or STN will prove to be a better market, maybe
Silverjet would consider a full move to STN or move BDA to LTN.

daz211

:=

Weren’t Flyjet supposed to be running the service on behalf of flyfirstclass and not in their own right? The new masters might have new ideas on running it for themselves in the future. Everything Silverjet has released to the Stock Exchange and Press talks about London Luton, not Stansted.
Now, don't fuel STN v LTN.

I suppose that the delays (actualy up to two hours) are all due to BAA security staff causing holdups so they can stay on and do a bit of overtime, or could it be that PAX are so stupid that the think that nobody will notice their extra bag (one bag only)their bottle of water (no liquids) their hairgel,deoderants,liquid makeup,cigarette lighters, and all the other items clearly listed on notices websites and various media releases that the traveling public think only apply to others, which are then discovered at central search and then argued over slowing the whole process. Send them all through NAKED WITH NO BAGGAGE and see how the delays are reduced.

True, the amount of people getting sent back to check in after 'attempting' to get through security is ridiculous. Some passengers as you already mentioned, think that cosmetics and allowed, toiletries etc. 'But you didn't tell me I wasn't allowed my lip gloss'. Well the phrase liquid cosmetics includes anything well... liquid! Lol.

I agree BAA security needs to do an awful lot more to ease the security mess at STN but this problem is not helped by the fact passengers think they can get away with taking all these items through.

Nor is it helped by manually searching 2/3 bags as happened yesterday! The lady at the xray desk looked REALLY stressed. They are spending way too much time looking for harmless items like water from normal families they are missing other stuff I have no doubt. The amount of attention a family with sunscreen in a bag consumes is frightening.
everyone is now a suspected bomber and that is just PC gone nuts.

Unusually, I'm going to defend STN: Three weeks back I made it through security for my 0820 dept to EDI in under 20minutes, and there were indeed long queues. Not ideal, but definitely not an hour.

Now I hope I haven't spoken too soon, as I'm going thru STN on the 06/11, so we'll see how it is then.

Jordan

Missing the point
 

You are right! security screeners should not be wasting time harassing the genuine traveller,so why the hell is Mr/Mrs Traveller still putting sunscreen in his/her hand baggage.
Oh by the way if you could add a description of the genuine terrorist it could help a lot of folks out:ugh:

I have just noticed that (GM) will have 3 flights a week out of STN
from 03NOV flt GM515 will opp STN-BTS with a 737-200 until 25OCT
on a friday departing at 1955,
followed by 17DEC flt GM517 STN-BTS with 757-200 opp until 25OCT
departing at 1330 on sundays,
and also from 15DEC flt GM517 dep's on a friday 2030 STN-BTS until
25OCT using 757-200.