Skift Take
Heathrow's operator BAA isn't happy about taking the fall for government incompetence, as their frequent leaks to the media make clear.
With a few weeks to go for Olympics, UK airport operator BAA
today said recent immigration queues at Heathrow were “unacceptably” long. Last week some passengers faced waits of 2.5 hours to get through immigration.
BAA said the Home Office had promised all Border Force desks at Heathrow would be manned during the peak Olympics arrival times. But it says Heathrow needs to take care of all, not just Olympic visitors.
The Telegraph and Daily Mail are in paroxysms over this, as expected.
Telegraph: On Friday passengers at Terminal 4 were stuck in half-mile queues, starting long before they even got to the immigration hall.
They said that once they got there, two out of three desks were not manned and immigration officers “talked among themselves” while ignoring passenger demands to know what was causing the delays.
Daily Mail: Adding to their frustration, they were met with empty passport control desks and uninterested staff, according to the Daily Telegraph. And airport staff even said to have tried to stop them from taking pictures to try and keep the mess under wraps.
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Tags: heathrow