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> On August 13th Virgin Atlantic grumpily published data showing that Heathrow hit its target for processing more than 95% of non-EEA passengers within 45 minut

> On August 13th Virgin Atlantic grumpily published data showing that Heathrow hit its target for processing more than 95% of non-EEA passengers within 45 minutes on only one day in July, with some waiting up to 156 minutes I was one of those people, traveling to Heathrow at the end of July on an EU flight (from Berlin) on a US passport. It took more than 90 minutes to reach the front of the queue. You'd think that it wouldn't take long to process people traveling from the Schengen area[0], but they have little incentive to make this faster, unless their domestic airlines (like Virgin Atlantic) start complaining. [0] I'm aware the UK isn't a Schengen country, but that's the point: if you're going to have passport control at the border, and if you're going to separate out people traveling on EU passports (which is more or less analogous to people from Schengen countries), then why such a delay for travelers coming from non-EU Schengen countries (like Iceland), or, for that matter, people who aren't traveling on an EU passport, but are coming from an EU country?

mikeash 8y ago
I’ve flown through Heathrow one time. I hope it will be my last. The lines and the crowding to get through passport control and security were unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else in the world. Thank goodness our destination has frequent flights from Heathrow, because we didn’t even come anywhere close to making our connection.
- chimeracoder 8y ago
  > I’ve flown through Heathrow one time. I hope it will be my last. The lines and the crowding to get through passport control and security were unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else in the world. I nearly missed a connecting flight in Heathrow earlier this year, because it took them thirty minutes to get seven people through security. I kid you not - I was seventh in line at security[0], and they were only allowing one person at a time to unload the contents of their bag onto the conveyor belt. They had five or six agents all "working" there, and a peak throughput of one passenger every three minutes. [0] International flights connecting in Heathrow have to go through security again, even though they've already gone through security at their original point of departure.
  - toast0 8y ago
    > [0] International flights connecting in Heathrow have to go through security again, even though they've already gone through security at their original point of departure. That's not terribly uncommon, or particularly unreasonable -- security standards and implementation vary significantly in different countries, and in as much as security screening is useful, you'd want to redo the screening with the local standards, unless you have separate facilities for international flights arriving from countries you know do a good job and other countries, but the customs/passport control section is probably shared among all international arrivals.
    - chimeracoder 8y ago
      > That's not terribly uncommon, or particularly unreasonable I fly internationally very frequently. I'm aware that it's not uncommon to have to go through security when making a connection. I'm saying that Heathrow's security is incredibly slow.
    - gsnedders 8y ago
      It is somewhat annoying however given within Schengen there is no requirement to make passengers from the Common Travel Area (i.e., UK + RoI + Isle of Man + Channel Islands) re-clear security, whereas there is in the opposite direction. Nowadays there's very little difference to the security procedure between the two, and I'm always surprised it doesn't hurt Heathrow more as a hub for ex-EU passengers. That said, in the UK case at least, it requires a change in law, so it needs to become enough of an issue it's worth some at least small amount of political time.
    - macdice 8y ago
      Yeah, not at all uncommon. More annoying than that, in terms of likelihood of missing a connection and getting stuck overnight at an airport hotel or whatever, is when US airports unload your luggage and make you check it in again. Argh.
    - United857 8y ago
      Transiting at Frankfurt airport, I didn't have to reclear security when flying from the US, but I Had to reclear when transiting through London Heathrow. So apparently Germany trusts some countries' airport security, but the UK doesn't.
- linker3000 8y ago
  I used to travel LHR to SFO around 5 times a year. The record to get through passport control was just short of two hours.
- sokoloff 8y ago
  Ever been to Mumbai? ;)
  - chimeracoder 8y ago
    > Ever been to Mumbai? ;) Mumbai has always been a breeze every time I've flown there, compared to Heathrow.
- FearNotDaniel 8y ago
  Each Heathrow terminal is so different from the others, it's really like four different airports that happen to share runways. Terminal 2 (used by all the Star Alliance airlines) is by far my favourite of all the international airports I've been through - outbound security is usually very efficient (this is not fast track, the normal lanes) and the e-passport gates generally have very short queues, unfortunately the non-EU passport control does look like it's somewhat slower though.
angott 8y ago
I believe their idea is that if you are a EU passport holder, you are (likely) also paying taxes in Europe, therefore you are contributing with your money to the border services at the airport.
- gsnedders 8y ago
  No, the important distinction is EU citizens have (by treaty) a relatively unconditional right to enter, reside, and work in the UK, and therefore are exempt from practically all questions related to "are you going to overstay or try and work here illegally?". That's the part that most of the immigration questioning is related to—assessing that risk.
joezydeco 8y ago
My question is: why can't we process the incoming passengers in flight? When I board a USA->EU flight, I have to record my passport #. The passport and its holder are visually verified at checkin. If anything is out of order I can't board. So why, during those 8 hours while I fly over, can't I just be cleared? If I show up and my face matches my passport (visually, biometrically, chip ID-wise, whatever) and my visa status is in order, can't I just proceed to customs?
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  What are they doing to you when you go through immigration? I generally go through quite quickly -- once I make it to the head of the line -- because all they do is look at the form and check that my face matches my passport. (And stamp the passport, if relevant.) My recent passport shows me with a beard instead of facial features; I did have a clerk ask me for ID with a different picture...
  - joezydeco 8y ago
    I think that's looking at it from the wrong angle. If everyone could pass through as easily as you and I, we wouldn't have the problem of long queues at border control.
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      That's only true if the long queues are caused by some people having a difficult time at the booth. But that problem mostly goes away as soon as you have two booths. For long lines to persist because of outliers taking a long time to get through, you need those outliers to be so frequent that every single booth is usually jammed by an "anomaly". In the example I bring up in my other comment, where every noncitizen coming through had to be slowly fingerprinted at the booth, that was the case, and the line was incredibly slow. But where that's not the case, it seems more like the issue is that there's a good amount of overhead involved even in processing someone quickly (signal booth availability; wait for the person to walk up...) and there just aren't enough staff to process several hundred people quickly.

mikeash 8y ago

I’ve flown through Heathrow one time. I hope it will be my last. The lines and the crowding to get through passport control and security were unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else in the world. Thank goodness our destination has frequent flights from Heathrow, because we didn’t even come anywhere close to making our connection.

chimeracoder 8y ago
> I’ve flown through Heathrow one time. I hope it will be my last. The lines and the crowding to get through passport control and security were unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else in the world. I nearly missed a connecting flight in Heathrow earlier this year, because it took them thirty minutes to get seven people through security. I kid you not - I was seventh in line at security[0], and they were only allowing one person at a time to unload the contents of their bag onto the conveyor belt. They had five or six agents all "working" there, and a peak throughput of one passenger every three minutes. [0] International flights connecting in Heathrow have to go through security again, even though they've already gone through security at their original point of departure.
- toast0 8y ago
  > [0] International flights connecting in Heathrow have to go through security again, even though they've already gone through security at their original point of departure. That's not terribly uncommon, or particularly unreasonable -- security standards and implementation vary significantly in different countries, and in as much as security screening is useful, you'd want to redo the screening with the local standards, unless you have separate facilities for international flights arriving from countries you know do a good job and other countries, but the customs/passport control section is probably shared among all international arrivals.
  - chimeracoder 8y ago
    > That's not terribly uncommon, or particularly unreasonable I fly internationally very frequently. I'm aware that it's not uncommon to have to go through security when making a connection. I'm saying that Heathrow's security is incredibly slow.
  - gsnedders 8y ago
    It is somewhat annoying however given within Schengen there is no requirement to make passengers from the Common Travel Area (i.e., UK + RoI + Isle of Man + Channel Islands) re-clear security, whereas there is in the opposite direction. Nowadays there's very little difference to the security procedure between the two, and I'm always surprised it doesn't hurt Heathrow more as a hub for ex-EU passengers. That said, in the UK case at least, it requires a change in law, so it needs to become enough of an issue it's worth some at least small amount of political time.
  - macdice 8y ago
    Yeah, not at all uncommon. More annoying than that, in terms of likelihood of missing a connection and getting stuck overnight at an airport hotel or whatever, is when US airports unload your luggage and make you check it in again. Argh.
  - United857 8y ago
    Transiting at Frankfurt airport, I didn't have to reclear security when flying from the US, but I Had to reclear when transiting through London Heathrow. So apparently Germany trusts some countries' airport security, but the UK doesn't.
linker3000 8y ago
I used to travel LHR to SFO around 5 times a year. The record to get through passport control was just short of two hours.
sokoloff 8y ago
Ever been to Mumbai? ;)
- chimeracoder 8y ago
  > Ever been to Mumbai? ;) Mumbai has always been a breeze every time I've flown there, compared to Heathrow.
FearNotDaniel 8y ago
Each Heathrow terminal is so different from the others, it's really like four different airports that happen to share runways. Terminal 2 (used by all the Star Alliance airlines) is by far my favourite of all the international airports I've been through - outbound security is usually very efficient (this is not fast track, the normal lanes) and the e-passport gates generally have very short queues, unfortunately the non-EU passport control does look like it's somewhat slower though.

angott 8y ago

I believe their idea is that if you are a EU passport holder, you are (likely) also paying taxes in Europe, therefore you are contributing with your money to the border services at the airport.

gsnedders 8y ago
No, the important distinction is EU citizens have (by treaty) a relatively unconditional right to enter, reside, and work in the UK, and therefore are exempt from practically all questions related to "are you going to overstay or try and work here illegally?". That's the part that most of the immigration questioning is related to—assessing that risk.

joezydeco 8y ago

My question is: why can't we process the incoming passengers in flight? When I board a USA->EU flight, I have to record my passport #. The passport and its holder are visually verified at checkin. If anything is out of order I can't board. So why, during those 8 hours while I fly over, can't I just be cleared? If I show up and my face matches my passport (visually, biometrically, chip ID-wise, whatever) and my visa status is in order, can't I just proceed to customs?

thaumasiotes 8y ago
What are they doing to you when you go through immigration? I generally go through quite quickly -- once I make it to the head of the line -- because all they do is look at the form and check that my face matches my passport. (And stamp the passport, if relevant.) My recent passport shows me with a beard instead of facial features; I did have a clerk ask me for ID with a different picture...
- joezydeco 8y ago
  I think that's looking at it from the wrong angle. If everyone could pass through as easily as you and I, we wouldn't have the problem of long queues at border control.
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    That's only true if the long queues are caused by some people having a difficult time at the booth. But that problem mostly goes away as soon as you have two booths. For long lines to persist because of outliers taking a long time to get through, you need those outliers to be so frequent that every single booth is usually jammed by an "anomaly". In the example I bring up in my other comment, where every noncitizen coming through had to be slowly fingerprinted at the booth, that was the case, and the line was incredibly slow. But where that's not the case, it seems more like the issue is that there's a good amount of overhead involved even in processing someone quickly (signal booth availability; wait for the person to walk up...) and there just aren't enough staff to process several hundred people quickly.