Those of you familiar with my sentiments will know I often rise to the defence of Britain and the British. I admire their fortitude, praise their respect for privacy and firmly believe they have the world’s best sense of humour. A lot of this is parody, satire and outright lampooning — often of the royal family. In the process, I’ve learnt to appreciate their eccentricities, overlook their foibles and, often, excuse their faults.
But what happened at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 on the evening of December 23 cannot — indeed must not — be forgiven. It was undeniable incompetence, amounting to incredible rudeness to people visiting Britain and, perhaps, worst of all, utterly self-defeating. It revealed the United Kingdom (UK) in the worst possible light.
Passengers landing at 8 pm were forced to wait for two hours and 20 minutes in a slow, crammed and interminably winding queue to clear immigration. After I’d slowly shuffled forward, foot by aching foot, I noticed that new entrants to the queue — because flights were still landing and fresh passengers joining at the far end — now, perhaps, faced a four-hour wait! And that includes first and club-class travellers because the UK’s done away with fast track for arriving passengers!
Did the authorities care? The fact no one expressed regret, leave aside an apology, suggests the answer is a definite no. It probably didn’t even occur to them to consider what would happen to the suffering passengers should they need to go to the loo! As far as I recollect no one did. Perhaps they preferred to battle incontinence than lose their place in the queue and add more hours to their already interminable wait!
Yet this was peak time and the height of the Christmas arrivals. It should have been anticipated and properly prepared for. And, without doubt, Heathrow has sufficient experience to do this. In 2019 nearly 81 million passengers travelled through the airport.
On December 23, however, more than half the immigration counters seemed unmanned. The man who eventually attended to me didn’t even have a pen! I waited further agonising minutes as he walked across to several of his colleagues to ask if one of them would lend him one! Fortunately, the fourth person he asked did.
By then our bags had been taken off the luggage carousels and haphazardly dumped on the side. Some were beside the original airline conveyor belt but several were incomprehensibly far away. It took another half hour to find my two bags. They weren’t just mixed and jumbled up with those of maybe 300 other fellow passengers; where I finally located them bore little relation to where they should have been.
The driver of the cab I booked the night before from Delhi phoned as soon as the plane landed to say he was waiting beside the WH Smith counter at the terminal’s exit. Little did he know it would be over three hours before I got to him. But he had no option but to patiently wait or else his trip to Heathrow would have been unpaid for!
I’m writing all of this because the British government needs to be firmly told this is unacceptable. Frankly, there is no other way of putting it. Practically everyone to whom I recounted my story was horrified. But I’m told my experience was not unique.
It’s happened to thousands of others, maybe tens of thousands. It’s particularly common at Terminal 3. It seems the British authorities accept this as normal practice!
So, let me end with a sardonic comment and some revenge-like advice. Does Rishi Sunak realise this is what would also happen to his in-laws, who are Indian passport holders if they land at Terminal 3 — unless he’s made special arrangements for them?
My advice? Bar all British citizens from using any fast track queue in every Indian airport. If that actually happens conditions at Heathrow will improve pretty quickly! You can count on that.
Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story. The views expressed are personal
Karan Thapar is a super-looking genius who’s young, friendly, chatty and great fun to be with. He’s also very enjoyable to read. ...view detail
At Heathrow, you are always in the queue
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13.01.2024
Those of you familiar with my sentiments will know I often rise to the defence of Britain and the British. I admire their fortitude, praise their respect for privacy and firmly believe they have the world’s best sense of humour. A lot of this is parody, satire and outright lampooning — often of the royal family. In the process, I’ve learnt to appreciate their eccentricities, overlook their foibles and, often, excuse their faults.
But what happened at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 on the evening of December 23 cannot — indeed must not — be forgiven. It was undeniable incompetence, amounting to incredible rudeness to people visiting Britain and, perhaps, worst of all, utterly self-defeating. It revealed the United Kingdom (UK) in the worst possible light.
Passengers landing at 8 pm were forced to wait for two hours and 20 minutes in a slow, crammed and interminably winding queue to clear immigration. After I’d slowly shuffled forward, foot by aching foot, I noticed that new entrants to the queue — because flights were........
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