we wait with baited breath..................................

Came through Stansted last night, walked down from the Ryanair satellite. When we came to the escalator that makes the quite considerable rise from the low level passageway up to the customs area there was a notice stating blandly "This escalator may be out of service due to operational reasons". Which indeed it was. And a number of elderly passengers were having quite a struggle getting up the several flights of stairs.

I am wondering just what are the "operational reasons" behind the fact that this escalator "may" be out of service.

The "Operational Reasons" are that there is not enough staff or booths in immigration for last wave arrivals and the escalator has to be turned off to prevent a continuous stream of people spilling into the queing area. Rather than fix the problem BAA have been turning off the escalator for the last 18 months.

If thats the reason, then it is a disgrace that elderley people are being made to take the slow route just to thin out and trickle feed the immigration desks. Any reporters reading ?

escalator troubles
 

Even when the escalator is switched off there is a 12 person lift right next to the escalator for those who cannot or do not want to use stairs, and for passengers with child transport. As for the reason for the delays at Immigration and Border control surely you can't hold BAA responsible for the lack of staff at a Goverment controlled agency the recruitment of staff is out of BAA's hands.

Absolutely Carousel....
 

and the "Operational Reasons" are actually safety reasons. If the queue is at the top of the escalator and people are still being taken up the escalator then where do those people go? Can you imagine being at the top, no where to go and more people coming up behind you? :eek: Very messy :ouch:

Then what idiot designed a building where an escalator carrying high passenger volumes leads directly into a congestion point ? This is architecture class 1.01 stuff. The "queueing area" seemed very small and liable to be overwhelmed by just one aircraft load.

My recollection is that the orginal building design by Norman Foster envisaged the satellites being connected by the transit and the walkways are subsequent variations to the design.

But until the Government decided to make the UK border about the most difficult to cross in the whole of the EU it wasn't going to be a congestion point.

Join Schengen and the problem's solved - fat chance of that happening though!!

XL at STN
 

The STN web-site has deleated all XL flights for summer 2008.

the first of the jet bridges have arrived i heard sitting over north side

they are probably awaiting the removal of "welcome to Heathrow" logos from them :ugh:

Just in case anyone would like to know, we have just flown with AA on STN - JFK - STN, we left on Thurs and came back yesterday. The flights were great, on time and landed an hour early coming home. The only downside was that there were no individual seat back TV's, but we did know about that before we booked. The STN - JFK flight was completely full, hopefully a sign of good things to come. The AA check in agent in JFK said that the Stansted flights are very frequently overbooked.

TOM
 

Although pulling out of STN, today TOM used two aircraft, TOM4924 to LPA & TOM8352 to Ovda.

Thomson are pulling out of Stansted???

Yes TOM will stop operating from Stansted with based aircraft from 1st May when the summer season finally kicks in again... however there will be a weekly 737-800 flight to and from Palma with TOM operating on a W-pattern from Luton. All Thomson booked holidays flying from Stansted will be operated by First Choice Airways A321s from the summer season.

I see there keeping SSH for next winter season though, will that be done with the 321?

Also the airbridges are well underway now, and Sat 1 shouldn't take too long to finish. Will Sat 2 be having new bridges aswell?

STN Airbridges
 

Sat 1 airbridges should be finished by the end of June. And Sat 2 may well be all replaced too next year, but far from confirmed just yet.