Gatwick and Heathrow to improve security queue monitoring
14.10.11
Gatwick and Heathrow airports have agreed to imrpove their queue monitoring procedures after they were checked and found to be deficient by aviation regulators. Month-long checks at both airports by the CAA showed longer queues for passengers in their security search areas than the they had reported previously. Heathrow was required to pay £500,000 to airlines as a result of the findings.
The CAA said its Heathrow audit had reported ‘that the queue profile visibly differed between when the auditors were present and the profile in previous months’. It found a higher proportion of passengers at Terminal 5 queued for longer than five minutes in July than in previous months. Gatwick's North Terminal also showed changes to its queue profile compared to reported figures for previous months.
A spokesperson for Heathrow said the queuing targets were not met - and the profile was different - because July was the airport's busiest month on record. She said: ‘Accurate data collection is very important and we will do everything we can to improve the robustness of our measurement processes.' The airport will be introducing an automated queuing system shortly.
A spokesperson for Gatwick Airport said: ‘There were only very minor differences between our queue measurement figures and [the CAA's]. As a result Gatwick has not had to pay any penalty to the airlines.’
CAA regulatory policy director Iain Osborne welcomed the airports' agreement to improve their measurement processes, which he said would boost the public's confidence in these measures.To book heathrow airport hotels or heathrow airport parking at the lowest price, click on these links to two great heathrow airport car parking and heathrow airport hotel price comparison page.
