Whats the answer to long queues at Heathrow Airport?

[pdq1]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17896216

Choose another airport?
Change flight to another time slot?
Take on more border staff?
Expand Heathrow?
Divert planes to another airport?

or what?

The Summer season or Olympics has not yet arrived, the future looks bleak!

[boxtops]

Stop cutting back on border staff - that's what.

[sir.prize]

Train half of those idle bl00dy MPs in the Commons and make them earn a living.

[237SJ]

Simple answer - man all the immigration booths. I can`t understand why that is so difficult for them.

[boxtops]

If it's anything like here at the docks, border control staff are being axed. Ridiculous.

[emmie]

More border staff, that would be a start. The trouble is if we start weeding out the probably not worth bothering with types, granny and mummy and daddies, with kiddies, then it could be construed as racism if you only pick up on those coming in from current hotspots. Does that make sense...

[boxtops]

Em, you have to check everyone, otherwise the grannies get targeted by the baddies.

[pdq1]

Sounds good Boxtops, should the airport pay for border guards, they're the one that benefit from more passengers?

[Prudie]

Listened to this being discussed/defended on radio this weekend. Believe the bottom line is they have cut back on staff to satisfy public sector required reductions. Now they are short staffed. The guy defending (not sure who he was, CE of Border Agency maybe) promised there would be an increase in staff before the Olympics - probably untrained Agency staff.

[emmie]

boxy are you saying that a device could be put in their luggage?

[mushroom25]

more border staff may sound simple, but that would cost more money than the agency has.

so, if you had a choice - would you rather wait 3 hours to get through immigration, or 3 hours for your ambulance to turn up?

ok so that's maybe a bit extreme, but it may come to a choice like that.

[boxtops]

All Government depts have had to cut back massively - it's central government funding, border control aren't paid by the airports. Some services just shouldn't lose staff, it's a threat to national security.

[237SJ]

I couldn`t belive the guy in the Commons today saying that nobody would queue for more than 1.5 hours. My sister (UK passport) came into T5 on Iberia a couple of weeks ago mid afternoon which is a quieter time and it took her 2 hours to clear immigration. HAL are closing off escalators to try to slow the amount of people going up into the immigration hall. About a quarter of the immigration booths are closed, there are plenty of staff around but nobody seems to be doing much. Then there is the little man sitting in the Office for National Statistics desk scribbling down his observations. His observations don`t seem to be making any difference.

[emmie]

i remember waiting in immigration control at JFK airport for almost two hours, and that was long before terrorism took a hold.

[boxtops]

Going into the States always takes longer, so I am told.

[237SJ]

JFK has always been like that em. US Border control treat people like cattle and couldn`t care less how long they queue. We`ve always done things a bit different here (until now).

[emmie]

my american boyfriend at the time was hopping mad i can tell you.

[pdq1]

On a different theme football clubs have to pay for police so why shouldn't airlines pay for border guards?

[boxtops]

Because football clubs do it for their own organisation, in theory to protect their fans, it's a commercial proposition Border control are about national security, people trying to get into the country illegally - not the same situation at all.

[237SJ]

Border Control is nothing to do with airlines. It`s nothing to do with the BAA or HAL either. It`s the Home Office`s job.

[FredPuli43]

More staff and more machines to read the latest 'biometric' passports.

There's certainly a big contrast with some places abroad. Nice airport waves UK passport holders in with barely a nod, usually with no more than a couple of minute's delay, but most EU passengers don't need a passport at Nice, which may explain their relaxed approach. They must think we're odd to bother when so many other EU countries ("Schengen" countries, from the Agreement) don't.