CDG departures chaos

[Nigel PAX]

Chaotic scenes at CGD T1 departures passport control today, with long delays -- do flight crews have to queue with pax? It was certainly causing pax to get to their planes late (delaying my flight), and I noticed flight crews standing around near the queue.

And why do the French need to carefully check passports of departing passengers anyway, when the Brits and Americans don't even look at them? I assume the inefficient new system is in some way related to the shoe bomber, but I can't see how they'd have stopped him with this system (just two slow inspectors on duty). I don't remember CDG being in this sort of mess previously.

[Hand Solo]

Might have been positioning crew, but usually there's some sort of dedicated crew channel. I can't speak for the Americans but in the UK all passengers departing on international flights have there passports checked, at least twice in my company.

[Nigel PAX]

UK departing passengers' passports are only checked when boarding the plane, and at check-in if you don't use the machine. There's no passport control as such -- it was removed years ago.

If, like me, you use an e-ticket whenever it's available, the only person who sees your passport on departure is the agent who glances at it at the gate.

The crew I saw in CDG were in full uniform and included a captain and second officer. I couldn't see any dedicated channel for them.

[N380UA]

As for the US and the rest of the world concerning security issues it must be understood that it is the US government which may or may not impose parameters to be complied with at the departing airport before a flight will be allowed through the US ADIZ following 09.11.01.

As any discerning individual would realize, the security measures in place in Europe have been on the highest standard for years and certainly much higher than they were on US airports. The irony in this is that(in most cases) security is still by far higher in Europe than it is elsewhere and yet European airport operators are being dictated exactly how security must be performed on US reg. A/C.

To the best of my knowledge, no flight departing Europe has ever been used as a guided projectile there have been of course hijackings in the past which has taught us how to deal with such situations.

I don’t mean to be cynical of recent history nor is any offence intended, but IMHO a flight must be secure and safe at the moment the A/C door closes. There should be no reasons for arming the pilot – his job is to drive his ship and not play Air America -- or having a sky marshal on board taking down pax which were peeing tow seconds too long.

If all the homework is done, the pax screened, the A/C checked and secured then we all can enjoy a great flight and get back to discussing the real troubling matters – the catering and the perpetual dry chicken which is always served.

[Thunderbug]

There is a dedicated crew channel at Terminal 1 CDG - It is just not very easy to find.... If crew try to use the pax channel, they usually get pointed in the right direction.

[Arkroyal]

How very surprising to find the words CDG and Chaos in the same sentence! NOT! <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

[flyblue]

There is a dedicated crew channel in CDG. As for the chaos, it is sure less than in the US where the so called "security" officers are very busy removing tweezers from cabin bags. . .About the passport, if you go outside EU your passport must be checked, that's the law and that's it.

[Nigel PAX]

But they were (slowly) checking the passports of even travellers to EU (non-Schengen) destinations, with just two immigration staff on duty and hundreds of irate people in the queue. And the fact remains that the UK does not have a passport control for any departing passengers, regardless of destination -- only the airline checks them, and if you have an e-ticket, only at the gate. The same is true in the US. So why do the French feel the need to check them?

Incidentally, the CDG security checks were being handled efficiently and fast -- it was just the unnecessary passport control that was bottlenecked.

[tech...again]

At CDG T1 it differs by airline as to whether crews use the dedicated crew channel or the pax channel.

[flyblue]

Excuse me Nigel, are you calling those checks "unnecessary" because UK doesn't apply it?. .Sorry but UK doesn't make the laws for the whole world. There is a law stating that all non-Schengen destination passports must be checked (even an ID in case of any EU destination), so it is not only France doing it. . .In those times I really find it inopportune to complain because of checks. I could agree about the slowliness, but not on else.

[Nigel PAX]

Well, yes, personally I do think the checks are unnecessary.

The US doesn't do them (even now), nor has it for as long as I've been travelling there (well over 20 years), and the UK dropped them a few years ago too. They didn't stop the shoe bomber (who left CDG with a valid UK passport), nor would they have stopped most other bombers and hijackers.

They strike me as unnecessary and pointless bureacracy that make travel more stressful and tedious while contributing little or nothing to security. CDG security seems OK to me, but not as thorough as in some other airports, but the passport checking is (sometimes) very slow, and then eratic when the queue builds up.

[dick badcock]

Nigel. .Not to mention the staff entrance at LHR, where it takes longer to get to the airplane through the staff entrance than it does if you go through the terminal with the pax. In LHR they seem to think that it will be someone on a catering truck or even a pilot that will bring a bomb onboard an aircraft, never mind the passengers! I was going through once when a crew member had forgotten her staff ID, they wouldn't let her through even though the rest of us verified her as belonging to us plus the fact she was wearing a company uniform!!!

At least in CDG they have the right idea for crew buses. Just a quick check, in and out in 20 sec, not 10 min like in LHR...