Bristol: Airport Security, Immigration & Border Control

[kraktoa]

Bristol Airport problems with departure security has surfaced again. People missing flights due to unacceptable delays at security. Last year it was queues snaking downstairs as there was no space to queue upstairs. They have extended the queuing area but that has not solved the problem. Twitter has many negative comments too.

Its all down to lack of staffing by the contractor ICTS. Also the new belts are horrendously slow in moving bags from xrays to collection point.

How does Bristol win all these awards whenpassenger dissatisfaction is so high. Is it awards for travel industry buddies where every one gets one.

The real passenger inputs in websites such as skytrax gives BRS a low rating.

http://www.airlinequality.com/airport-reviews/bristol-airport/

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I presume ICTS has a specified contract with the airport. They are either not meeting the contract or the airport has not negotiated a sufficiently robust contract. If the former is it anything to do with getting staff? I understand that pay and conditions are poor and that there is a turnover of staff.

BRS is in good company. I used Eurostar recently and the security and immigration queues at St Pancras and at Gare du Nord were horrendous. Far worse than was the case a few years ago in my experience.

As for awards, whether for airlines, airports, television programmes, footballer of the year etc, I never take them seriously. Like you I sometimes think there is an element of Buggins' Turn.

Digressing slightly, I always smile when organisations describe themselves as 'award winning'. I could bestow an award on the local chippy. Would that then make it award-winning?

 

[kraktoa]

I presume ICTS has a specified contract with the airport. They are either not meeting the contract or the airport has not negotiated a sufficiently robust contract. If the former is it anything to do with getting staff? I understand that pay and conditions are poor and that there is a turnover of staff.

BRS is in good company. I used Eurostar recently and the security and immigration queues at St Pancras and at Gare du Nord were horrendous. Far worse than was the case a few years ago in my experience.

As for awards, whether for airlines, airports, television programmes, footballer of the year etc, I never take them seriously. Like you I sometimes think there is an element of Buggins' Turn.

Digressing slightly, I always smile when organisations describe themselves as 'award winning'. I could bestow an award on the local chippy. Would that then make it award-winning?

Yes it is staff turnover. The only people who will work a shift pattern of 4am to 4pm and 4 pm to 4 am at minimum wage are non Brit recent immigrants. The job is restricted to Brit passport holders. Not even europeans can apply for the job. Therein lies the state that of our society and the reason for the turnover.

 

[kraktoa]

Brexit may change this for the good. Polish and other nationalities will, after a qualifcation period, apply for British passports. Many who have settled here since European expansion have already applied for British passports, in fear that brexit will kick them out. With brit citizens they could work in departures security as their work ethic is far more robust than the homegrown variety.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Yes it is staff turnover. The only people who will work a shift pattern of 4am to 4pm and 4 pm to 4 am at minimum wage are non Brit recent immigrants. The job is restricted to Brit passport holders. Not even europeans can apply for the job. Therein lies the state that of our society and the reason for the turnover.

If the airport believes that the poor reaction from passengers is damaging to it, or even if it doesn't it might think its passengers deserve better, then it might have to renegotiate its contract and pay more money to ensure that the rewards and working conditions for workers employed by its contractor are commensurate with keeping them.

So long as passengers continue to turn up in ever increasing numbers and the airport company's profits go on rising they aren't likely to do that.

I occasionally look at the airport's Twitter feed. It seems that the reaction to complaints from passengers is to express regret at the circumstances leading to the complaint, and say the matter will be put in the hands of the relevant department or partner. I wonder if anything positive actually happens following a complaint other than honeyed words.

I'd like to see the airport CEO come on to the airport's Twitter feed from time to time and take some flak. Snag is that Twitter is too limiting for a proper two-way conversation.

 

[superking]

looks like the structure has been put in place for human beings to operate and its design to work as it should. This only happens when you have the correct number of staff to operate the system.Seeing only brits can do this position then it will never work with low pay scale.Fact of life with lots of industry till you get the pay scale to a level people do not struggle to live then things like this will go on for ever more.

 

[kraktoa]

If the airport believes that the poor reaction from passengers is damaging to it, or even if it doesn't it might think its passengers deserve better, then it might have to renegotiate its contract and pay more money to ensure that the rewards and working conditions for workers employed by its contractor are commensurate with keeping them.

So long as passengers continue to turn up in ever increasing numbers and the airport company's profits go on rising they aren't likely to do that.

I occasionally look at the airport's Twitter feed. It seems that the reaction to complaints from passengers is to express regret at the circumstances leading to the complaint, and say the matter will be put in the hands of the relevant department or partner. I wonder if anything positive actually happens following a complaint other than honeyed words.

I'd like to see the airport CEO come on to the airport's Twitter feed from time to time and take some flak. Snag is that Twitter is too limiting for a proper two-way conversation.

Whereas the airport were quick to respond to compliants on twitter, albeit with fobbing off words, they dont seem to do even that anymore. Complaints on twitter go unanswered. The complaints of immigration queues have subsided only to be taken over by delayed bags after flight has landed (upto 1 hr) and long waits at departures security check points (1 hr, which is too long to wait when travelling with children). Apparently they Dont have enough drivers to ferry the bags from planes to arrivals hall.

 

[superking]

In short pay decent wage then you will get staff.

 

[superking]

Out of interest when the football flights operated how did things go or did they just let them through with no checks..Any one know??.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Whereas the airport were quick to respond to compliants on twitter, albeit with fobbing off words, they dont seem to do even that anymore. Complaints on twitter go unanswered. The complaints of immigration queues have subsided only to be taken over by delayed bags after flight has landed (upto 1 hr) and long waits at departures security check points (1 hr, which is too long to wait when travelling with children). Apparently they Dont have enough drivers to ferry the bags from planes to arrivals hall.

Partly due to the peaks and troughs at an airport like BRS I suppose. At one time during a day there might 12-15 arrivals within an hour and another time 3-4. They won't pay to have people standing 'idle' during the quiet times.

It still needs addressing although, as I mentioned earlier, if people continue to use the airport in ever growing numbers there is little imperative for the airport to do much. People will understandably moan and some will say they won't use the airport again but in reality they know that an hour's wait for baggage would be equalled or exceeded in most cases by the time taken to journey to another airport, plus the extra travelling cost.

 

[Marko1]

Despite the fact that the staff employed both at security and at passport control are employed by external agencies it is the first impression that passengers have of the airport. There have also been a host of complaints regarding check in and baggage reclaim recently which together with the other two issues is creating a sense of chaos for the average passenger. The airport does need to get a grip on this sharpish in my opinion

 

[kraktoa]

Out of interest when the football flights operated how did things go or did they just let them through with no checks..Any one know??.

They had no bags to check in and had boarding cards.

Basically waved through.

 

[Aviador]

Passengers with no belongings are easy to process. Families carrying multiple bags containing laptops, tablets and liquids take considerably longer to clear the security process.

 

[Marko1]

More complaints today on social media regarding both incoming and departing security. They really need to start getting a grip on this situation. I thought all works were now complete so the airport cannot use that as an excuse

 

[Jerry]

More complaints today on social media regarding both incoming and departing security. They really need to start getting a grip on this situation. I thought all works were now complete so the airport cannot use that as an excuse

On the CWL TOM thread there's a post complaining about BRS's security. Experiences like that will put people off from flying from BRS.

 

[Marko1]

Yes it will. Unfortunately it is external bodies that are responsible for the situation but joe bloggs public do not see it like that. There has been a number of complaints regarding baggage reclaim too. It just does not look good

 

[Aviador]

More complaints today on social media regarding both incoming and departing security. They really need to start getting a grip on this situation. I thought all works were now complete so the airport cannot use that as an excuse

There isn't such a thing as inbound security, that will be the UK Border Agency, a government department.

 

[Jerry]

I haven't been to BRS for a very long time. Is the security area and immigration halls small for an airport it's size? I've been through EDI's and that is a decent size area and the experience was pretty quick.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The security area was revamped and enlarged when the western terminal extension was completed. It's a much bigger area than was the case previously and superficially at least is quite impressive. I forget how many security stations there are but it's quite a number. Getting staff is apparently a problem at times. Hopefully kraktoa will read this. He has first-hand knowledge of these aspects of the airport.

The same applies to immigration. The new enlarged hall was opened this year and includes ten egates. Part of the problem there is as I've seen from personal experience, and not only at BRS, is that many travellers are not familiar with using egates and have to be helped by staff. If they are helping one person at the time a neighbouring traveller needs help that person has to wait, thus holding up others behind who do know what they are doing but can't get to the egates.

As has been said, the Border Agency is not controlled by an airport and fields the number of staff it believes necessary or in these times of public service reductions the number it can afford to put on duty.

It's not only BRS that is seeing these sorts of problems because of its success. This week similar complaints are being made about EDI in the Dried Plum, and other rapidly expanding airports have come in for similar complaints.

BRS's problems mainly revolve around its peaks and troughs. With around 30 departures between 6 and 8 each morning there is a big build-up of passengers.

A look at next Friday shows how the flows vary:

Arrivals
0001-0200 7 aircraft
0201-0400 0
0401-0600 0
0601-0800 2
0801-1000 5
1001-1200 13
1201-1400 18
1401-1600 13
1601-1800 12
1801-2000 10
2001-2200 8
2201-2400 15
Total 103

Departures
0001-0529 0 aircraft
0530-0810 30
0811-1000 4
1001-1200 9
1201-1400 21
1401-1600 6
1601-1800 18
1801-2000 14
2001-2200 3
2201-2400 0
Total 105

I've not included the Airbus and BAE corporate shuttles whose passenger use the Centreline terminal on the southside.

This is fairly typical of all the days and it can be seen that if a passenger leaves in the first batch of flights he/she has a good chance of facing a challenging experience with around 4,800 seats available. Lunchtime and late afternoon/early evening are also likely to prove less than relaxing.

The peak for arriving passengers is lunchtime and mid to late evening into the early hours when immigration can slow things down markedly.

Flows would obviously be better managed with a more even flow of arrivals and departures throughout each day but that's only likely to happen if the airport sees many more non-based aircraft operating to it.

Currently annual passenger throughput is around 8 million. What will it be like when it's 10 mppa or more? The huge sum spent on terminal improvement (£160 million since 2010 with the lion's share going to trying to improve the passenger experience) has not significantly improved things for passengers during the peaks. I last used BRS leaving on a mid-afternoon flight when the place was fairly quiet and it was almost a joy to use (as much as using any airport can be considered a joy these days).

I fear that the peaks, especially the first batch of departures and the last batch of arrivals, will continue to generate complaints for a long time to come. Airports and airlines can be cynical. When Ryanair was the recipient of constant complaints around the country numerous people said they'd never use them again, but most did and Ryanair knew that they would. The same applies to BRS. Some people will be put off but the vast majority will moan (probably justifiably in many cases) but then come back the next time they see a convenient flight at a decent price.

 

[Jerry]

Could the airport themselves employ more staff. From my experience at CWL the e-gates are manned by CWL personnel i believe. Is that the same at BRS or is it out sourced? I think the security personnel are also CWL employed is that the same at BRS?