EasyJet to turn away 'have a go' fliers who arrive with less than 30 minutes to go

worldtraveller

EasyJet is imposing a new rule which means anyone trying to pass through the security barriers with less than 30 minutes before take-off will be prevented from getting “airside” and sprinting to the gate – and could end up paying £80 to switch to another flight.

The airline has asked Gatwick to reprogramme its security barriers at which travellers have their boarding passes scanned to reject those with less than half an hour remaining before departure.

Previously, tardy passengers with no checked baggage were free to go through the security check and hurry to the departure gate in the hope of getting on the flight.

Independent

Browntoa

Will not cure the

I've got time for one more beer before the flight

We've still got time for duty free , they will hold the plane

worldtraveller

Browntoa wrote: »

Will not cure the

I've got time for one more beer before the flight

We've still got time for duty free , they will hold the plane

Probably true!

Moto2

You see a lot of smokers doing the last minute dash at airports that don't have any smoking areas airside.

Stevie_Palimo

I bet the frontline staff are really happy as they will now have even more irate individuals to contend with now.

bluenoseam

Slightly naughty of them but by the same measure, I wholly agree with it! Might just be the fact that I use the same mindset for all flights - be in the airport 2hrs minimum before the scheduled departure - but hey, it works! As unfortunate as it can be to find an "unexpected delay" en route to the airport, the sad truth is that many of these HAG passengers simply don't have any concept of good timekeeping.

Thing to remember is that with EasyJet (and others of their kind) it's all about quick turnover, the longer they're on the ground the less efficient they're being. That's what it boils down to, passengers being late costs them money, so they're trying to cut that out. Personally I'd have it in big letters at point of booking & once again at online check-in but well, people would still ignore it. Won't be long until EasyJet (and again, others of their kind) keep a list of passengers who are serially late or troublesome and start refusing to carry them!

dickydonkin

worldtraveller wrote: »

EasyJet is imposing a new rule which means anyone trying to pass through the security barriers with less than 30 minutes before take-off will be prevented from getting “airside” and sprinting to the gate – and could end up paying £80 to switch to another flight.

Surely such a 'rule' would be dependent on Gatwick security staff enforcing it - not the airline. I wouldn't be too happy if I was a security officer having to enforce a policy that does not concern me and in effect, doing a job that Easyjet staff should be doing at the gate.

How would that work if a passenger turns up at the airport or security with ample time before the gate closes, but due to high volumes of passengers or some other issue, the security clearance is delayed - through no fault of the passenger?

Security staff explaining to Easyjet passengers who miss the 'deadline' will also cause unnecessary delays and probably some arguments - delaying the security queue even more.

worldtraveller

bluenoseam wrote: »

Slightly naughty of them but by the same measure, I wholly agree with it! Might just be the fact that I use the same mindset for all flights - be in the airport 2hrs minimum before the scheduled departure - but hey, it works! As unfortunate as it can be to find an "unexpected delay" en route to the airport, the sad truth is that many of these HAG passengers simply don't have any concept of good timekeeping.

Absolutely! I've never been late, or even close, for a flight in the past 40 years of air travel due to any tardiness on my part. I've only come close a couple of times. Once due to immigration line delays in Boston of 1 hour, for a connecting flight and once in Charlotte the day the fluid bans were imposed without any notice.

soolin

dickydonkin wrote: »

Surely such a 'rule' would be dependent on Gatwick security staff enforcing it - not the airline. I wouldn't be too happy if I was a security officer having to enforce a policy that does not concern me and in effect, doing a job that Easyjet staff should be doing at the gate.

How would that work if a passenger turns up at the airport or security with ample time before the gate closes, but due to high volumes of passengers or some other issue, the security clearance is delayed - through no fault of the passenger?

Security staff explaining to Easyjet passengers who miss the 'deadline' will also cause unnecessary delays and probably some arguments - delaying the security queue even more.

The last few times I've been through Gatwick all the security barriers have been automatic - so you scan your boarding card and the gate opens to let you through. There are a few staff around mainly to help those people who have issues with the scanning but I don't know if they can over ride the barriers at all, regardless of how irate a passenger is.

I have never seen queues there at all and have always walked straight up the barriers and been passed through. The bag and person scans are after that , and that is where any queue is likely to be- so a person could conceivably pass through the barrier within the allowed time and the hit queues at security and miss the flight.

I wonder though how many people actually leave it less than 30 minutes to go through security knowing there will be queues for scanning and sometimes a several minute walk to the gate. Surely it must be a very small percentage?

Westin

Surely such a 'rule' would be dependent on Gatwick security staff enforcing it - not the airline. I wouldn't be too happy if I was a security officer having to enforce a policy that does not concern me and in effect, doing a job that Easyjet staff should be doing at the gate.

They have had these style of automated barriers in the South Terminal at Gatwick for sometime. The North Terminal central search area is going though quite major redevelopment at the moment and I suspect the current 'manned' check points will be shortly changed over to the same automatic gates as you have in South very soon. Whilst there are a couple of wandering staff to aid passengers it is very much an automated process. You have to go through the barriers FIRST before getting to the security point in central search.

In the South terminal if your boarding card won't scan (often seen when someone prints a boarding card at home on a dodgy printer) the passenger is refered back to the airline handling agent. I think the same process will simply happen if you present yourself at these automatic barriers at less than -30 minutes until departure.

EasyJet inform passengers that they close gates at -30 mins now anyway so I can't really see much difference. They just have to now think of how to get those who hang around too long in the bars/duty free to make it to the gate on time.

Bit of a slow day in the Independant newsroom perhaps. Still, can't wait to see how the Daily Mail regurgitate the non-story in a few days.

duchy

Moto2 wrote: »

You see a lot of smokers doing the last minute dash at airports that don't have any smoking areas airside.

I did quite a bit of flying within Scandinavia this month - some intentional - some not due to going the long way round as radar failed at one of the major hubs and everyone got rerouted.

All the airports had airside smoking facilities - Gothenburg a tiny but clean booth and with proper extraction system ,Stockholm the same and Copenhagen has a dedicated outdoor smoking terrace - According to airport staff the major reason is to encourage people to go through security early (and I'm sure it's no accident the biggest one is very close to the huge duty free at Stockholm). They are all very different to those disgusting smoke boxes Gatwick used to have.
From an economic point of view it seems to increase food, drink and duty free sales as well as avoid the last minute dash through security. Done properly it would work well at UK airports.

I was refused at check in at 60 minutes at Las Vegas on a busy Sunday morning (Rodeo weekend) as I wouldn't make it through security in their opinion and was rebooked onto a later internal flight . It caused a bit of concern as I then missed missed my subsequent flight New York to London (on a seperate ticket with another airline) however AA didn't bat an eyelid and simply put me on the next flight thankfully.////not all airlines are so obliging.