IAG has offered the following commitments to the EC as part of the regulatory process:

· Seven daily slot pairs to be used between Heathrow and either Edinburgh and/or Aberdeen.


Maybe Cityjet could jump onto these routes using there RJ85 aircraft and
make of go of running these routes, at least then there would be some
competition on the route.

Surely there must be huge start-up and ongoing fixed costs for any airline that does not already have a Heathrow operation? Also, they will have no prospect of ever getting slots for any other routes out of Heathrow apart from Edin and Abdn.
NS

Air France has a Heathrow operation...;)

They do, however they have also axed or transferred all non CDG routes to LCY and CityJet. I think CityJet are struggling competing against the new equipment that BA CityFlyer has without diluting their point to point with an expensive LHR operation with the small RJ85.

Connecting at EDI?
 

Hi all, i just have a little query.

I was on yesterday's BA8706 from LCY. I was then connecting on to EI3295 to Dublin.

Upon arrival we disembarked. We were directed from the aircraft but when we got inside it was the duty free area, I thought I had taken a wrong turn! I thought to myself that maybe I didn't need to pass security again as it was a domestic flight..I was confused.
As I had already checked in for my EI flight I decided to stay there.All went well and I took my ATR back to Dublin.

Is it usual to not have to go through security? Like my passport wasn't even checked nor did we pass and security/customs etc. of any sort..

Any feedback will feed my curiosity! :)

EDI is the only UK airport to operate a "common user lounge" as opposed to a common departure lounge. This means that arriving passengers can mix with departing passengers, which technically goes against UK Border Agency policy. The UKBA has apparently told EDI it needs to move towards a common departure lounge, to rectify this anomaly. However, as EDI is currently being sold off, by order of the Competition Commission, it remains to be seen what the new owners will come up with.

Presumably you did show your passport at the gate when boarding your EDI-DUB connecting flight, and again at DUB (since DUB doesn't observe the Common Travel Area in the same way that UK airports do, and forces arrivals from the UK to show a passport)?

Manchester airport's terminal 3 operates on a similar policy. There is no need for any passenger to be re-screened when arriving on a domestic flight and transfering as it is assumed you have already been screened at point of departure by a standard set down by the DfT.

RE: Bartek
 

Thank you very much for that info, that makes sense now :)

However, the only time I was asked for my passport was at Passport Control in Dublin.

At the gate all the woman did was tear off the slip on my boarding pass. I suprised that it wasn't scanned (she manually checked that my destination was DUB by looking at the card) but not being asked for my passport/identification was even more suprising...the flight was behind schedule, could that be why?
Or could it have been a mistake maybe?

Not all airlines require ID to be shown when boarding.

Domestic arrivals have nothing to do with the UK Border agency and have been pre-screened to DfT standards at another UK airport, hence there's no issue. The issue would be EDI allowing international arrivals access into the lounge before UK Border clearance or rescreening which given the lack of Flight Connections centre, I don't believe they are capable of?

Incidentally, anyone know why Glasgow is different? They won't allow people back into the departure lounge so if you nip down the domestic pier(s) and your flight is delayed you can't nip back to the shops. I did once ask and the guy made an answer up to keep me happy....we both knew he was lying (!)

There is strict segregation of arriving international passengers so seems to me a little odd. I just like to understand why things are the way they are!

Common use departure lounges are in use at LHR T5 and T1 as well as LGW North and South where arriving international passengers are rescreened prior to access with domestic passengers being photographed (biometrics at LGW) to ensure no one who shouldn't arrives on a connecting flight and connects in the UK avoiding the UK Border. Since neither GLA or EDI have that sort of Flight Connections set up, it's simpler.

EDI-DUB EI3295
 

Here's the video of my EDI-DUB takeoff.

I was mightily impressed by the scenery surrounding Edinburgh!! :)

Great little video. You might need to point me to the 'spectacular' bit though ;)
That runway looks a bit short!

And the point of this video being?

Video
 

It's my departure from EDI recently, I was very impressed by the views of the city, snowy mountains and the Forth bridges :)

Which part of ' switch off all electronic devices ' for takeoff did you not understand??:ugh::ugh:

I have noticed that BA and bmi do not check ID at the gate and have often wondered how or indeed why they get away with it. I have not flown international with either for a while, but in my experience, the last 3 or 4 years neither have asked for ID at any UK airport.

So how is following situation prevented?

Jimmy and John book a flight EDI-LHR.
Jimmy can't go anymore, but Johns brother Jack wants to go instead.
John and Jack turn up at EDI, don't have a bag, so check in at a kiosk using the reference number provided at time of booking and Johns credit card as verification.
No one asks for ID at any stage (not needed when passing through security at EDI) so Jack gets a free ride to LHR and BA/bmi lose out on a name change fee.

I'm assuming BA do check ID at the gate for international flights to avoid potential visa irregularities, if not then Jack could go on to get a free ride to Rome, for example.

Just doesn't seem right to me. Every other airline I have been with and have worked with is vigilant at checking ID at the gate.

As someone else said, it will be interesting to see what the new owners do with EDI, if a dedicated domestic area is needed then it shouldn't be too hard to bring about. Just make gates along the SE Pier domestic and revamp the remaining areas to handle international, or something along those lines. If outgoing passport checks are ever re-introduced in the UK then that'll be a bit more of a challenge for EDI, due to lmited space, but simply splitting pax traffic to go to either side of the building wouldn't require much thought.

ID on domestic flights only came into being with the lo-co carriers so that any name changes were collected. IATA ticketing does not allow for name changes.
ID is checked on all international flights.

Quote: “This means that arriving passengers can mix with departing passengers, which technically goes against UK Border Agency policy. The UKBA has apparently told EDI it needs to move towards a common departure lounge, to rectify this anomaly. However, as EDI is currently being sold off, by order of the Competition Commission, it remains to be seen what the new owners will come up with.”

“Domestic arrivals have nothing to do with the UK Border agency and have been pre-screened to DfT standards at another UK airport, hence there's no issue. The issue would be EDI allowing international arrivals access into the lounge before UK Border clearance or rescreening which given the lack of Flight Connections centre, I don't believe they are capable of?

Incidentally, anyone know why Glasgow is different? They won't allow people back into the departure lounge so if you nip down the domestic pier(s) and your flight is delayed you can't nip back to the shops. I did once ask and the guy made an answer up to keep me happy....we both knew he was lying (!)

There is strict segregation of arriving international passengers so seems to me a little odd. I just like to understand why things are the way they are!”

Can’t understand why the UKBA would be concerned about arriving domestic pax mixing with departing pax. Obviously at all airports arriving international pax have to be segregated.

At GLA, the "lounge area"/shops area was landside, with security at the start of each pier and few facilities beyond. This changed when security was moved to a single location before accessing the lounge area which thus became airside. At the same time domestic arriving pax were segregated.

Quote: “Presumably you did show your passport at the gate when boarding your EDI-DUB connecting flight, and again at DUB (since DUB doesn't observe the Common Travel Area in the same way that UK airports do, and forces arrivals from the UK to show a passport)?”

The days when border control at DUB just waved through all pax on a UK flight are long gone. AFAIK they now need to see any government-issued photographic identification, so a picture drivers licence is OK, a workplace pass is not.

Airlines need to check passports at the gate to ensure that pax are permitted to land at the destination. Otherwise they face a fine and the responsibility of repatriating the pax. Obviously this does not apply on domestic/common area flights but some carriers require photographic identification for their own purposes. AFAIK it is only BA and BD that do not. Don't know about EI.

Quote: “I have noticed that BA and bmi do not check ID at the gate and have often wondered how or indeed why they get away with it. I have not flown international with either for a while, but in my experience, the last 3 or 4 years neither have asked for ID at any UK airport.

So how is following situation prevented?

Jimmy and John book a flight EDI-LHR.
Jimmy can't go anymore, but Johns brother Jack wants to go instead.
John and Jack turn up at EDI, don't have a bag, so check in at a kiosk using the reference number provided at time of booking and Johns credit card as verification.
No one asks for ID at any stage (not needed when passing through security at EDI) so Jack gets a free ride to LHR and BA/bmi lose out on a name change fee.

I'm assuming BA do check ID at the gate for international flights to avoid potential visa irregularities, if not then Jack could go on to get a free ride to Rome, for example.”
　
Don’t worry too much about Jack’s free ride, carriers have more important things on their minds.





　
　

EI always have ID checks at the gate, at least as far as EDI is concerned they do anyway.

I would have thought that making sure the person who is on their passenger list is actually the person who is on their aircraft would be up there in the top 10 things of that airlines should be concerned about, I guess I'm wrong.

Unless you really think it's alqaeda, the check is that you need your exec club card, passport, or the card used to make the booking to check in. All of which can be got at but I mean, some simplicity is appreciated.