Report: British Airways First Wing security at Heathrow Terminal 5 to close for 3-4 months

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• planeconcorde says:

  17 Dec17 December 05:46

  “The UK Government has mandated that airports much…” should say must.

  • Volker says:

    17 Dec17 December 11:02

    No offence, but that seemed pretty obvious. I would find it more important to add the word “major” before “airports” which would clarify that premium passengers e. g. at Barra airport won’t see any interruption to their VIP treatment in the near future – in case a beach landing is still on your bucket list. The 11 airports (inc. Inverness) operated by HIA Ltd. are exempt from the legislation requiring the implementation of 3D scanners by June 2024.

• Andrew J says:

  17 Dec17 December 06:15

  Gosh, I’ll be avoiding flying for a few months then.

  • Jamie says:

    17 Dec17 December 07:09

    Definitely. Remember to inform your clients that you can’t fly to see them because you can only go through the First Wing security scanners and no others at T5….

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    17 Dec17 December 07:32

    I’m not sure if people are serious when they say things like that but it just makes them look silly

    • Andrew J says:

      17 Dec17 December 08:57

      Thankfully no clients that need my visits. And yes, it’ll make me think twice about flying from LHR T5 until the facility is back. But thanks for the caution over my comments and any perception of silliness that they create.

  • Bernard says:

    17 Dec17 December 09:36

    This is an unsubstantiated rumour amplified by clueless 12 year old wannabes on flyertalk. Best ignored for now until there’s something official (if ever).
    Remember the Monarch nonsense – same sources. All incorrect.

    • dougzz99 says:

      17 Dec17 December 09:46

      In my experience 12 year olds are no more or less clueless than adults. But you keep flogging that horse from your mountain of knowledge.

      • Bernard says:

        17 Dec17 December 10:59

        Rather I’m suggesting there is no substantive knowledge. Just rumours.
        That’s the adult approach and as an adult I’m not going to get excited about anything I see as unsourced rumour on a compromised platform (X) or a site (flyertalk) populated by fantasists.

        • Doug M says:

          17 Dec17 December 11:36

          Flyertalk has many posters with superb knowledge and inside info, I would say particularly on the BA forum. Your ‘clueless 12 year old’ remark which you’ve made twice today and I’m pretty sure previously too, reflects a ridiculous generalisation that demeans a fabulous resource.

      • Bernard says:

        17 Dec17 December 12:02

        The same ones on flyertalk who:
        Think Monarch is real
        Were insistent that Jet2 was going to buy BA at Gatwick
        Who illegally trade lounge access for money
        Who spreads false rumours about the 787 and A380 club suites programme
        Who spend hours trying to maximise compensation claims or find a way to get into the Concorde room?
        Spread false rumours about changes to gold and gold guest list
        Delusionally think if they whine enough there’ll be a silver for life.
        Confuse frequent flyer status with some idea of reciprocal loyalty..
        Regularly have hissy fits as they don’t get a car pick up from the plane.
        Who always seem to be having to find ‘points runs’ otherwise they’d have no silver statue (so not exactly hard core road warriors are they?).
        And, on personal experience, hang around lounges in peak season trying to blag a guested entrance.
        None of which we find on hfp.

        Compared to that site, HFP is far more fact based, useful and generally far better informed.

        • dougzz99 says:

          17 Dec17 December 13:11

          I’ve no idea, I’m selective in what I look at. But there’s no shortage of garbage here either, you sort the good from the bad to suit yourself. I’m guessing most people find our to and fro beyond tedious. But your broad dismissal of Flyertalk misses the enormous amount of quality help and information available there.

        • Will says:

          17 Dec17 December 15:08

          Not my overriding experience of flyer talk, it’s an incredible resource generally.

          I’d suggest your presentation is analogous to the idea that because some people in society break the law we should lock everyone up in prison.

    • Andrew J says:

      17 Dec17 December 09:46

      A relief to know there’s no substance to the rumours.

    • Rob says:

      17 Dec17 December 10:09

      1. The scanners must be replaced by June – fact
      2. No airport has yet done one in less than 3 months I think, albeit mostly because of floor reinforcement which allegedly is not an issue here

      Not exactly a wild and fanciful story.

  • Johnny Tabasco says:

    17 Dec17 December 09:57

    lol the entitlement on this site sometimes is jaw dropping

• riku says:

  17 Dec17 December 06:36

  hopefully at the same time they will change any signs telling you what to do, unlike somewhere like Munich where there are massive pictures on the walls telling you to remove liquids and electronics and when you start to do that the staff tell you to keep everything inside your bag.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    17 Dec17 December 08:01

    This! Find it so annoying all that investment to change but haven’t bothered to think about the message for customers.

    It’s not just taking down those old signs but flipping the message and telling people they can leave it all in the bag etc as they’ve just spent 15 years or so doing the opposite and may have done just that at the last airport they flew from a few days prior.

    • daveinitalia says:

      17 Dec17 December 11:43

      Or even a few hours prior

• Peter says:

  17 Dec17 December 07:03

  The new scanners are already in use a Frankfurt.The hand luggage goes through quicker but the passenger queues to be scanned are longer than before. About 50% needed a manual search.

  • supergraeme says:

    17 Dec17 December 07:39

    They’re fine at City and Stansted.

    • Jenny Reed says:

      17 Dec17 December 07:42

      Also fine at Schipol

      • Novice says:

        17 Dec17 December 14:23

        I hate schipol now. Don’t get get any time for lounge anymore as it takes a yr at security on the way bk to UK.

        • Will says:

          17 Dec17 December 15:10

          Really? I’m not a regular there but in the half a dozen or so times I’ve been through over the last 5 years I’ve always found security there very swift.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          17 Dec17 December 15:17

          It took approx 30 mins for me to get from check in to the Cafe Flor lounge in October and that included a quick look at the paintings in the Rijksmuseum gallery there.

          Making silly exaggerations just makes you look silly.

  • lumma says:

    17 Dec17 December 07:48

    They’re partially in use at Luton now and London City has had them for ages. When they first appeared at City, my first couple of times I went through I had to go for a manual search, which rarely if ever happened for me on the old scanners. Recently, I’ve just gone straight through so I think the operators are being over cautious when the system is brand new. They seem to have problems with cameras and lenses as I got manual checked at Luton last month in their new scanner too and my camera was what they checked.

    Tirana, Albania is great with these new scanners plus Egates for UK passports however

    • Clayton says:

      17 Dec17 December 15:47

      100% on how efficient TIR is with them. Plus there’s no “you left the club you can’t be in these lanes anymore” pettiness and after using the lanes with the new scanners there’s a lovely separated lane walkway till your totally out of the central search zone.

      I mean the lounge there is a hot mess but an efficient flow through CS is a pleasure.

      Will say that I’d hit the buzzer for a random pat down but being deaf had no idea as I’d forgotten to watch the lights for my visual clue and the staff not only didn’t action it. I spent a couple minutes reattaching my belt and arranging myself before walking off and having a lovely young lady come chasing me down as I moved out into the terminal proper to explain ( translated to me by the better half) and ask if I wouldn’t mind terribly coming back so they could do the pat down which as soon as I’d left the controlled area and mingled with other pax kinda became irrelevant and skirts the line of an “uncontrolled passenger movement” also known as “Oh bugger. Do we have to clear the entire terminal and rescreen everyone now?!” That was only on my last visit though but maybe they’re a little too efficient in moving you through now I reflect back haha

      • Londonsteve says:

        17 Dec17 December 19:29

        As a non-EU country Albania is entitled to place British passport holders in whatever lane it likes. EU countries don’t have that freedom and are obliged to maintain EU/EEA only lanes which, logically since the UK has left the EU, can no longer be used by British passport holders. Many EU airports have created UK lanes (often useable by other nationalities too) as a halfway house, with a view to expediting the entry and exit of UK nationals which serves to overall reduce queues since UK nationals only need their passport scanned and stamped, not a full interview with a border official. It wouldn’t make sense to allow UK nationals access to EU lanes as UK passport holders now require different protocols; UK passports are different from EU documents, which include ID cards, data needs to be cross checked against different databases, etc. It’s not pettiness, it’s reasonable and practical that EU and UK citizens are now separated at immigration.

• Luca says:

  17 Dec17 December 07:32

  I heard it takes 3 months to install a new machine and then calibrate it. So would make sense if they do it then.

  Shame the UK is so far behind other nations with this installation.

  • Clayton says:

    17 Dec17 December 16:03

    That’s one of those. Totally true but also not. VERY much simplifying matters think of how it’s always best to leave a fridge freezer in place but turned off for 24hrs ( well more 6-12 nowadays according to the one we got a few months back but still).

    If they have stored near to intended position, and more importantly on level ground avoiding any slope >5° between the two then there’s a big time saving there. Lift needed, yeah probably lost that saving. The time problem has a lot to do with the load testing and process’ that, hopefully, force a failure in numerous specific ways ( which I won’t go into obviously) and have to have the desired effect repeatedly whilst under simulated live loading and operation. Again vagueness but there would be situations where you’d hit a failure point, sorta, requiring a fresh start which is where weeks can quickly become months and there’s the added potential that it wasn’t a calibration or detection failure but was caused by the operative whose simultaneously doing their own training and acted in the wrong creating a false-positive but as the machine isn’t yet compliant there’s a requirement to proceed as if both machine and operator screwed up.

    June 25 would be a more realistic goal imho but hey-ho

• Phillip says:

  17 Dec17 December 07:40

  Great to see the new machines at the T3 fast track facility this week. They were still being installed back in October.

• Not Long Now... says:

  17 Dec17 December 08:05

  The key issue is for me is when will the liquid regulation on 100ml individual, all to fit in a 1l bag be changed, and perhaps more importantly, when will all security staff be aware it has changed and apply rules accordingly?
  Coming back from SFO couple of months ago, the ‘new’ scanner security we went through was allowing anything liquid, with several people carrying large bottles of Coke etc., whilst the neighbouring ‘old’ scanner queue were having their 500ml water bottles thrown into the (enormously full) trash can. Perhaps unsurprisingly there were several irate travellers remonstrating…

  • lumma says:

    17 Dec17 December 10:01

    You can currently take any size liquids through at city airport, so once all the machines are in use, the limit will have gone

  • Clayton says:

    17 Dec17 December 16:10

    Difference is the machine in that old lane couldn’t analyse, identify and flag up that were different chemicals in bottle 1, 2 and 5 and that those could be mixed once onboard and become an IED.

    Losing a bottle of coke on that basis, whilst frustrating, is an acceptable loss when the potential alternative outcome leaves you at risk of never drinking another coke again coz you just suffered an explosive decompression and Total Loss Event at 42,000 ft and your now very very dead.

• Tony says:

  17 Dec17 December 08:33

  Is this being done to save BA money…and inconvenience passengers.
  BA dumped Group 1 boarding a year ago, and made it Group 1 to 3…bundled. Now they are screwing the excellent First Wing security, for as long as possible…4 months!?! The BA work experience kid is a pain in the arse….

  • Rob says:

    17 Dec17 December 08:46

    This is a Heathrow project, not BA.

    • JDB says:

      17 Dec17 December 09:28

      @Rob – while HAL is in charge of the project, BA and other airlines have been heavily involved in scrutinising every aspect of the cost and execution of this, and every other project. The airlines always see this as ‘their’ money being spent although it goes on the passenger charge. If there is anything they don’t like in terms of cost or plans, they shout very loudly and/or run to the regulator.

  • Rich says:

    17 Dec17 December 10:10

    They haven’t dumped Group 1 boarding on every flight. It was in operation at T3 last week for example.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    17 Dec17 December 10:21

    Why do you think this save BA money?

    Unless people who could use the wing no longer use the lounge (because it’ll be such a long walk to get back to the F/CCR) that only saves BA a marginal amount of money on food and drink.

  • ABS says:

    17 Dec17 December 13:11

    To be honest, on shorthaul boarding Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 separately and Groups 1,2 and 3 together make very little difference to your boarding experience.

    On a shorthaul flight, Group 1 is Club Europe and Gold (Club can be up to 56 people on many shorthaul services) Group 2 is Silver and Group 3 is Bronze which you’ll find total less than 10 on most flights that you’re on.

    • AL says:

      17 Dec17 December 19:58

      Boarding priority is a mess. Some routes now have Group 0, which is fine as there tends to be few of them. The one that annoys me is the “board first if you have a bag!” deal, which inevitably means half the aircraft are boarded first and the bins are mostly full before group one even gets a look in!

  • red_robbo says:

    23 Dec23 December 18:53

    So how exactly do you think this might be saving BA money? And why would they be doing it to inconvenience passengers?
    I think your evident dislike of BA is clearly coming through….

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