Chaos in airports


Would have thought furlough would have solved that problem. Can’t imagine airport security just laying people off. Sounds plausible tho. Schipol a nightmare too by the sounds of it.

Definitely some laid off and even those who were furloughed could get another job and pocket double pay. Why head back to the shit show with shit hours and no extra pay.
 
Anyone used Fast Track security at Newcastle? I’ve used it at Edinburgh and it’s been canny, especially with the bairns, but wanted to know whether it’s worth the extra few quid.
 
BA flight from Heathrow at 9am

Don’t look forward to flying at the best of times never mind how hectic it is at the moment
 
I fly pretty regularly, probably 2-3 times per month and it can be extremely hit and miss. Newcastle is generally fine and no issues with queues etc. Early mornings can be busy but not much of an issue in terms if times. Passport control can be bedlam if a few planes land at once and the e-gates are temperamental. Mind I flew last night and every single flight was delayed (mine 2 hrs) but put this down to first day of school holidays.

Heathrow T5 can be extremely volatile. If you come in off a transatlantic flight at say 5 or 6am then it can be very busy at passport control as loads of flights land all at the same time. I came in from Guyana the other week and when we got to immigration there was a gigantic queue of mostly Nigerians and they process each person so slowly as they quiz them about why theyre here etc. Got a massive queue of British passports holders standing behind waiting which takes about 10 seconds each to process being held back with none of the e-gates open. Took over an hour.

Flew out of Manchester last week and it was pretty chaotic, particularly the security which was probably the worst I have ever seen with the trays just piled up on top of each other as too many people and too few conveyors open. Had 3 trays off stuff as had only carry on plus my work laptop etc and the 3 trays all came through about 15 mins apart so loads of hanging around.

What slows things down a lot in the UK and needs major investment is the security scanners. Go to Schipol or Dubai or Saudi or USA and you don’t need to take anything out of your bags (liquids, laptops Etc) as the scanners pick it all up, whereas here you have to virtually empty your bag here and it just slows everything down.
 
Flew from Newcastle yesterday morning with hand luggage only. Walked straight up to security and there was only a short queue. Got through in about 10 mins.
 
Left Washington the other week , dropped the car off , checked in and got through security in 50 minutes total

Queue for security or hang around air side afterwards there’s no difference in time.
 
I’m flying from Leeds/Bradford in a few weeks and seeing tales of chaos alongside other reports that it’s been exaggerated. But there’s no option other than to turn up I suppose. The only airport that I would regularly use for where I tend to go, but which I refuse to even contemplate, is Manchester. But that was a decision made before the current problems. It’s been awful for yonks.

I’m a little bugged by the juxtaposition of constant reports all over the press of absolute carnage, flight and holiday cancellations, people missing planes, huge queues, luggage stacked in airport corridors… alongside a daily spam of ‘cheap flights’ emails from a variety of carriers in my inbox.
 
Flew out of Manchester in March , the scanning machines weren’t all open the one that were seemed to be grinding to a halt with engineers trying to fix them.

100 % need to pay for fast track if I was flying through there again.
 
BA flight from Heathrow at 9am

Don’t look forward to flying at the best of times never mind how hectic it is at the moment
Saturday morning I got to T5 at 6.30 and was through T5 pretty quickly, sipping champagne in T5B by about 7.00. The airport was pretty rammed at the start of half term mind. My colleague flew from T2 same time Monday morning and the security queues were out the door.

I should say, I did have fast track (which you can't buy, only through status or class of travel) but the main security lines looked fine.
 
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Aye T5 was nowt there. About half an hour in the security queue, fairly standard. Banged out sausage egg and beans in the lounge. Happy holidays.
Saturday morning I got to T5 at 6.30 and was through T5 pretty quickly, sipping champagne in T5B by about 7.00. The airport was pretty rammed at the start of half term mind. My colleague flew from T2 same time Monday morning and the security queues were out the door.

I should say, I did have fast track (which you can't buy, only through status or class of travel) but the main security lines looked fine.
 
5 pages in and nee mention of Ponteland West or Sunderland North or Woolsingham aerodrome? Newcastle this,Newcastle that,give your head a wobble man
 
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We flew out of Newcastle to Toronto, via T5, last Wednesday. Back yesterday. No issues. Flight to Heathrow was 20 minutes late. Airports were busy but no real bother.
I go back to Houston on Tuesday. They can cancel those flights and get no complaints from me. 😁
The commuter routes seem to be fine. Its more the tourist stuff that's getting the thick end of it. Swiss port clearly prioritising business travel routes over leisure.
 
The commuter routes seem to be fine. Its more the tourist stuff that's getting the thick end of it. Swiss port clearly prioritising business travel routes over leisure.

Airlines do the same. They will always prioritise long haul over short haul as it costs more to compensate/rebook the long haul customers who also tend to be their most frequent fliers. Better to piss of a once a year economy customer going to Malaga than someone who books multiple business class tickets a year to the US and Asia.
 
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Edinburgh been bad recently does anyone know?

Flying to Budapest from there the last Thursday of July.

Expecting it to be hell.
 
I’ve flown from Manchester and Newcastle in the last 2 months.

Newcastle straight through security in 15mins.

Manchester T2I had priority so I was cleared in under 5mins. Baring in mind it was Easter, and at the peak of the bad reporting, the normal queue looked like 30mins max.
 
Edinburgh been bad recently does anyone know?

Flying to Budapest from there the last Thursday of July.

Expecting it to be hell.

Worse than usual but not tragic.

Couple of tips:

The website tells you what the current security queue is

And go to the left queue when you get to security. There are normally 2 belts on at the back but only 1 at the front, so the left queue looks longer but goes down quicker. (Obviously if you can see which security belts are open then it helps. Left is the queue for far away 3, Right for closest 3)
 
Maybe if they paid people a decent living wage there wouldn't be staff shortages. The days should be long gone of relying on cheap foreign staff to inflate the already sky high profits that some of these companies have. Greedy bastards.
 
I’m flying from Leeds/Bradford in a few weeks and seeing tales of chaos alongside other reports that it’s been exaggerated. But there’s no option other than to turn up I suppose. The only airport that I would regularly use for where I tend to go, but which I refuse to even contemplate, is Manchester. But that was a decision made before the current problems. It’s been awful for yonks.

I’m a little bugged by the juxtaposition of constant reports all over the press of absolute carnage, flight and holiday cancellations, people missing planes, huge queues, luggage stacked in airport corridors… alongside a daily spam of ‘cheap flights’ emails from a variety of carriers in my inbox.
Always generally fly from Leeds (just find it better than Newc, plus I live in Teesside so no difference on travel time etc).
Flown twice out of there this year, feb kids half term and kids easter half term - no problems either time.
20-30mins max thru security queue but nothing to be worried about imo
 
Edinburgh been bad recently does anyone know?

Flying to Budapest from there the last Thursday of July.

Expecting it to be hell.

Flew from there on Saturday. 20 minutes from dumping the car to getting through security although we’d checked in online and we went through the family and assisted passengers bit of security.
 
Maybe if they paid people a decent living wage there wouldn't be staff shortages. The days should be long gone of relying on cheap foreign staff to inflate the already sky high profits that some of these companies have. Greedy bastards.

What would be a decent rate of pay to start work at 3am in an airport?
 

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