Travelers fighting their way through Heathrow airport are spending more time in line than on their flights. The average time getting through check-in and security is currently 90 minutes.
Somebody from my family goes to Heathrow at least twice a week - flying, meeting visitors or dropping people off. My husband and son flew out yesterday, and my husband said it reminded him of the first time he flew through Johannesburg - the wild old Jo’burg terminal, not the spiffy new one - back when airlines like Air Zimbabwe checked passengers in by writing down names on a clipboard. Not state-of-the-art, in other words.
Yet this week a lawyer for Heathrow had the audacity to argue in court for an injunction that would have prevented an environmental protest outside the airport - on the grounds that allowing people to gather near terminals attracts terrorists.
His argument was that disruption to traffic could put the lives of the protesters and other individuals at risk. “If a blockade of cars formed, they could be subject to terrorist attack,” he said. “Of course we see that in Baghdad every day.”
At this, the reporter remarks drily, “There were giggles in court.” He notes,
[B]y its own admission, BAA believes confusion and chaos at airports to be a terrorist risk equivalent to that experienced in Baghdad. And…while it will invoke this entirely reasonable argument as a means of attempting to see off the green lobby legally, it will not then evolve the idea a stage further by extending the same protection to its passengers.
No kidding. When I traveled through Heathrow in May, I was pulled aside at security for a trial program: I was told I could submit to a series of full-body x-rays, posed in a variety of wacky stances, after which I could proceed straight through the metal detector. It wasn’t mandatory, the screener said. However, if I declined to be x-rayed I would be sent to the back of the security line to start over.
I had a flight to catch. I chose the wacky irradiated poses. I can’t express my derision for that airport loudly enough.
On the other hand, in the terminal yesterday my son met James May, one of the stars of Top Gear, so he thinks Heathrow is the greatest place on earth.
6 responses so far ↓
Patti // August 7, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Full-body x-rays?!? Oh, there’s a lawsuit waiting to happen when 20 years down the road frequent travellers begin to develop illnesses related to radiation exposure.
When I had to fly a couple of months ago, I did the online check-in my airline offered 24 hours before flight time and then headed off on the 4 hour drive to the airport, where I spent the night at a nearby hotel. At 5:45 the next morning I presented myself at the desk, boarding pass in hand, to be told that my flight had been cancelled and I’d been rebooked. However, someone made a mistake and booked me on a flight the next day that would have had me landing when I was supposed to be giving my paper. I was indeed notified of the change by an email that arrived well after I’d left home. I ended up on a stand-by list for a hugely over-subscribed flight and was the last person to get on, which left at least a half dozen more to return to get themselves re-re-booked.
I used to love Heathrow (compared to Pearson in Toronto), especially for passport control because they always seemed to have lots of wickets open and the corrals kept people in queues. Pearson never had more than a couple open in a great big room and it was like a rugby scrum trying to get at them.
Ken // August 7, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I would dearly love to fight back, but alas there is, as yet, no alternative to being treated worse than cattle if one needs to cross an ocean or two in a short time.
Snart // August 7, 2007 at 7:02 pm
My favorite, recently, was leaving from San Diego, one of the airports where the new “sniffing” technology is in place.
My family of four was chosen to undergo an advanced safety check. No problem.
We weren’t, this time, selected to go through the “sniff” check. This is fairly cool, if you know what to expect. You walk into a booth the size of a phone booth, stand still and get puffs of air blown at you at various locations on your body. These puffs are then instantly analyzed, for gunpowder, explosives, and God knows what else (Wal-Mart cologne or perfume?).
The idiocy was that the “random” selection process had also nailed an elderly woman, obviously suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s. Escorted by her husband, she was barely able to make it through the security lines at all. Imagine her fear and confusion when the TA officer tried to make her stand alone in the booth. She was in tears and kept trying to get out of the booth before the red light went off. She almost shot through the roof of the booth when the air puffs shot out.
I asked to be allowed to take her place, but was informed that security guidelines forbade it. Last I saw, the poor little lady was standing in the booth, crying and reaching her arms out for her husband on the other side of the glass doors.
Someone should issue common sense with the TA badges, but I suspect that’s too much to ask. No one wants to take the risk of independent decisions.
Patti // August 7, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Snart, that’s awful. There’s security and there’s cruelty. It’s hard to be a security threat when you can’t remember why you’re there in the first place.
UK traveller // August 8, 2007 at 4:39 am
I love your description of Johannesburg Airport in the old days. The closest I’ve been to that is Maputo Airport in Mozambique - all the luggage is just piled together after the flight.
Meg // August 8, 2007 at 7:39 am
Maputo sounds just like Heathrow Terminal 1, traveller!
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