Airport Security, Immigration & Border Control

[tpm]

Sadly the immigration queuing area wont be expanded. There will be more electronic gates but no new immigration manned desks. Missed opportunity.

Oh. Is it all just going to be extra baggage belts then in the extension? Hard to believe..

 

[Aviador]

Sadly the immigration queuing area wont be expanded. There will be more electronic gates but no new immigration manned desks. Missed opportunity.

I'm fairly sure the only reason for this is immigration manning is provided by Border Force which is paid for by the government not by the airport. As such, if the government isn't willing to spend any further money on manning immigration desks, there isn't much point in adding more of them?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Sadly the immigration queuing area wont be expanded. There will be more electronic gates but no new immigration manned desks. Missed opportunity.

The airport included this statement in a recent press release.

To cater for increased passenger demand, work is underway on a £2.3 million project which will take the number of passport control points from the current ten to a total of 17 when it opens in April, including ten of the latest ePassport gates which provide a safe, secure and speedy alternative to the conventional border control process.

As well as introducing new equipment, the work will enlarge the immigration hall which will be redesigned to create a more welcoming environment and streamline the border process for passengers.

From what you say even if the immigration hall is being enlarged the queuing area won't be, meaning the only gain will be more e-gates which in theory ought to enable more passengers to pass through in a given period. As many passengers are not familiar with e-gates and often take longer to pass through than they do via manned desks, it will be interesting to see what effect if any this has on the passage through immigration.

I have some sympathy with some passengers' difficulty with e-gates because they don't operate in a standard way throughout the world. At Melbourne Tullamarine, an airport I know well, when approaching the immigration area it's first necessary to go to one of a bank of machines and insert your passport. This produces a ticket which you take to an e-gate and insert whilst standing in front of the camera. If all is well you are then admitted to Australia.

 

[kraktoa]

the 10 egates will indeed help as they are new generation with fast response times. But you have to bear in mind that most europeans travel with identity cards which cannot be used in the electronic gates. Italians, polish, czech, spanish almost always use id cards.

 

[kraktoa]

The airport included this statement in a recent press release.

To cater for increased passenger demand, work is underway on a £2.3 million project which will take the number of passport control points from the current ten to a total of 17 when it opens in April, including ten of the latest ePassport gates which provide a safe, secure and speedy alternative to the conventional border control process.

As well as introducing new equipment, the work will enlarge the immigration hall which will be redesigned to create a more welcoming environment and streamline the border process for passengers.

From what you say even if the immigration hall is being enlarged the queuing area won't be, meaning the only gain will be more e-gates which in theory ought to enable more passengers to pass through in a given period. As many passengers are not familiar with e-gates and often take longer to pass through than they do via manned desks, it will be interesting to see what effect if any this has on the passage through immigration.

I have some sympathy with some passengers' difficulty with e-gates because they don't operate in a standard way throughout the world. At Melbourne Tullamarine, an airport I know well, when approaching the immigration area it's first necessary to go to one of a bank of machines and insert your passport. This produces a ticket which you take to an e-gate and insert whilst standing in front of the camera. If all is well you are then admitted to Australia.

Can you use egates in Australia with british passports?

 

[Aviador]

Thanks for the clarification TLY.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Can you use egates in Australia with british passports?

Yes, you can.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BRS issued a press release today re the enlargement of the immigration hall.

https://www.bristolairport.co.uk/ab...d-media-centre/2017/1/epassport-gates-removal

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Work Commences on £2.3 million Immigration Hall upgrade
Created: 11th Jan 2017

Latest improvements will enhance arrivals experience for passengers

Work will begin on Monday 16th January on a £2.3 million project to enlarge and enhance the immigration hall at Bristol Airport. On completion in April, it will take the number of passport control points from the current ten to a total of 17, including ten of the latest ePassport gates which provide a safe, secure and speedy alternative to the conventional border control process.

As well as introducing new equipment, the work will enlarge the immigration hall which will be redesigned to create a more welcoming environment and streamline the border process for passengers.

To enable the new technology to be installed, existing equipment has to be removed first. As a result, ePassport gates will be unavailable to passengers for a period of three months until installation is complete. All passengers on international flights will be subject to conventional passport checks during this time.

Alison Roberts, Bristol Airport said:
“These new facilities will be in place for passengers from April onwards, in time for the busy summer holiday season and will make a big difference to the airport experience. In the meantime, we will be working closely with Border Force to keep any inconvenience to passengers during the improvement works to a minimum.”

 

[kraktoa]

The immigration hall will no doubt be enhanced with additional e gates. It will also be enlarged due to the egates and the space that it takes. The queuing area in front of the egates will also probably give the impression that it is larger area. But for passengers who do not use egates......is their area going to be enlarged. Lets wait and see. I will be travelling this spring and summer so will look forward to seeing the hall in its fully completed glory.

 

[kraktoa]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/passengers-arriving-bristol-airport-over-12497584

Passengers venting their anger over long queues at passport control.

 

[Jerry]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/passengers-arriving-bristol-airport-over-12497584

Passengers venting their anger over long queues at passport control.

Hopefully that article might put some welsh people off and get them traveling from Cardiff instead!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

kraktoa

Is there anything that can be done to ease this situation in the next three months? I presume the Border Agency was fully informed of the impending works but like all in the public sector they have reduced budgets.

I see the local rag has picked up on this. They seem to love to publish negative stories about the airport.

Whenever fog causes flights diversions away from BRS to other airports the rag will put it on the front of its web edition yet, as with several days this winter, when diversions come into BRS because other airports are fog-bound not a dicky bird is published.

 

[kraktoa]

I guess Border Agency have staff spare now, with the number of desks reduced to 6 and no egates to monitor.

There is never a good time at Bristol to do upgrades to the tiny immigration hall. The problem still is the stairs leading to the hall. They cannot make passengers wait there for H&S reasons. So they have to make them wait in buses or walkways. Passengers dont like waiting in long corridors for 30 min.

And when they had the chance to upgrade the stairs area they didnt. Even now the stairs remain the same. Mind boggles really.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I guess Border Agency have staff spare now, with the number of desks reduced to 6 and no egates to monitor.

There is never a good time at Bristol to do upgrades to the tiny immigration hall. The problem still is the stairs leading to the hall. They cannot make passengers wait there for H&S reasons. So they have to make them wait in buses or walkways. Passengers dont like waiting in long corridors for 30 min.

And when they had the chance to upgrade the stairs area they didnt. Even now the stairs remain the same. Mind boggles really.

Many thanks, kraktoa. I know you've mentioned this before and from what you say it does appear that a chance was lost in not doing something about the stairs.

Even when the immigration hall is expanded the stairs pinch-point will remain.

If a Sunday in January led to those problems what will it be like in late March, early April, when the summer season begins to get going? It has to be hoped that when the new gates etc come on stream there is at least some improvement in the arrival experience.

 

[andrewgreen]

The stairs are a bit of a pain but I can't see what can be done about them ?
I don't think there is enough room for escalators and lifts would really slow things down and leave more people waiting outside . The only solution I can see would be a much bigger arrivals hall with an entrance further away so the floor can be built with a slope on it .
Is there actually the space to extend it without encroaching on the bus drop off area/apron ?

 

[kraktoa]

The new egates waiting area is going to get some very expensive, very good looking, shiny, artistic pillars. I think it will win awards. Sorry dont have a photo to show yet.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The stairs are a bit of a pain but I can't see what can be done about them ?
I don't think there is enough room for escalators and lifts would really slow things down and leave more people waiting outside . The only solution I can see would be a much bigger arrivals hall with an entrance further away so the floor can be built with a slope on it .
Is there actually the space to extend it without encroaching on the bus drop off area/apron ?

I don't think that's on the agenda at the moment, especially given the money recently expended on increasing the size of the arrivals area.

I hate being an armchair critic about anything, especially a subject on which i have no practical experience such as running an airport, but I do hope that the immigration bottleneck was taken into account when the amelioration of the immigration area was considered.

If BRS does reach its targeted 10 mppa (and beyond that if they can get the planning restrictions lifted) then perhaps some serious re-thinking will have to be undertaken.

The new egates waiting area is going to get some very expensive, very good looking, shiny, artistic pillars. I think it will win awards. Sorry dont have a photo to show yet.

Let's hope they turn out to be pillars of wisdom so far as the immigration procedure is concerned. I look forward to seeing a picture in due course, or perhaps I'll see them at first hand when travelling into the airport.

 

[kraktoa]

From the number of twitter complaints it appears passengers have been waiting for over an hour to clear immigration this weekend. It must be a nightmare and with works scheduled until end of April....it will be a horror story Easter. Expanding too fast with not enough facilities.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

From the number of twitter complaints it appears passengers have been waiting for over an hour to clear immigration this weekend. It must be a nightmare and with works scheduled until end of April....it will be a horror story Easter. Expanding too fast with not enough facilities.

I'm assuming this will be a regular issue until the expanded immigration hall comes on stream. As we've said before let's hope it improves things but I suspect there will still be times when there are lengthy immigrations queues.

It happens from time to time at many if not most of the airports that I've been through.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Why was this masked man in Bristol Airport?

An image of a man ‘wearing a ski mask’ at Bristol Airport has been posted on social media. The photo shows a man holding a sign with his face covered by a woollen style ski mask.

It was posted by Fun Lovin’ Criminal frontman and BBC broadcaster Huey Morgan on Wednesday afternoon who raised concern over the incident. He said: “Hey Bristol Airport, why is this man allows (sic) to darned (sic) with a ski mask on and security does nothing? “Y’all are playing a dangerous game.”

Full report at http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/masked-man-bristol-airport-23477

It seems the man was landside and was waiting to meet an inbound passenger who he knew. The mask was worn as a sort of 'in-joke' between the two.