Whats the story with city of derry airport immigration control?

x12yhp

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

OK.... but come on.. Belfast isn't exactly a stronghold for the Taliban!!

That misses the point entirely!

tightasaduck's wrote: »

Are you sure? I flew out of Belfast City recently and, as far as I could see, the area you mention could only be accessed by those who had already gone through security.

I go through there many times a year so I am certain.

tightasaduck's

x12yhp wrote: »

I go through there many times a year so I am certain.

I trust you pointed that out to them then as that is an unbelievable gap in security and would not inspire confidence in anyone using the City airport. Is our Mr Nolan aware of this as he uses this airport all the time?!

purt

x12yhp wrote: »

If you want bad NI airport stories, try this one on for size...

Belfast City on monday morning. I am wandering up to the business lounge (i.e. in the security checked area), get to the top of the stairs to see a wide open eating area that I did not recognise. Wandered through, had a look about before realising this was in fact the public eating area, upstairs, OUTSIDE of security! A big set of wide open double doors through which anyone could have walked - not a security person in sight. So before you fly at belfast city, just keep in mind that security is nothing more than a front - you really have no way of knowing whether the guy sitting next to you has had his baggage checked or not.

If you'd looked a bit closer, you might have noticed that the upstairs restaurant etc is only accessible by those people who have gone through security. I was through the airport quite recently and they were renovating it to make this bit part of the facilities available after security. They've sectioned off the original entrance accessible from the escalator/stairs.

It makes more sense. I've had the unfortunate experience of being stuck beyond security in the city airport awaiting a delayed flight and nowhere really to eat.

purt

justaquestion wrote: »

4 it must have been very obvious to the person in immigration that it was simply a plane load of natives returning from their holidays so why the very stringent and strange procedure in place?

5 if passport was scanned is it a legal thing to do under the data protection act?

I reckon the 'very stringent and strange procedure' you refer to is to curb the number of illegal immigrants entering the country. That and counter terrorism.

If your passport was scanned, it was probably cross referenced with the Passport Agency's database. You probably would have consented to them holding your information when you applied for it so, no, data protection legislation wouldn't come into play.

Bigcammy

With regards to the upstairs restaurant in Belfast City Airport, this used to be accessed from the Check-in hall, but they changed it so you can only access it from the departure lounge, through security.

You now have a staircase in the check-in hall that goes up to a blank wall, looks really stupid!