Gate expectations: as older flyers, can we beat the airport queues?

Simon Calder answers your questions on the best route to Canada, flight disruptions, and security queue dilemmas

Passengers have recently faced some long queues at Birmingham airport (Simon Calder)

Q My wife and I are in our mid-seventies. Whilst being able to make our own way through an airport in normal times, we would find it difficult to stand for long periods. Our nearest airport, Birmingham, has long waits for security at peak times. Fast-track passes are not always available (and strike me as unfair). Should we ask for assistance to deal with this anxiety-causing issue?

Adrian B

A I am sorry for the worry that security queues of indeterminate length are causing to passengers booked to travel from Birmingham airport after some very long queues for security.

Some reports have been exaggerated: queuing outside the terminal was always part of the summer plan while building work takes place. They do not indicate a catastrophic failure of the system. Nevertheless, when I talked to the chief executive, Nick Barton, two weeks ago, the lines had peaked at around 5am with waits of 50 minutes.

This strikes me as about twice as long as people should reasonably expect to wait. The airport boss says he is doing all he can to reduce them as the summer pressure intensifies. After the “first wave” surge each day clears, the queues at Birmingham airport are much shorter.

So if your flight happens to be from mid-morning onwards I would be confident in a relatively short wait. If, though, you are booked on a departure before 10am, in your position I think it would be reasonable to request special assistance. Do this through your airline at least 48 hours ahead.

On the day, you can find the Assisted Travel Help Desk on the ground floor (just across from the Spar shop). If you look for check-in zone B, you should find it. If you have baggage to check in, this will be expedited – you will be taken to a desk without having to queue. Then you will be escorted through security and taken to the gate, where you will have a dedicated waiting area before the flight.

When a flight is grounded due to a technical issue, an airline – in this case BA – should pay £350 in compensation (Getty)

Q British Airways sent an email at 11.45pm on Friday night cancelling my mother’s Saturday flight from Malaga to Southampton. The replacement flight they offered was today via Dublin. I’m sure you say airlines are duty-bound to fly people on the same day?

Julie D

A Yes, this unfortunate turn of events at the weekend is an excellent example of how airlines can fail to deal with disruption sensibly – and how they could use humans with a map to sort out problems rather than applying what I presume are machine-generated “solutions”.

Malaga to Southampton is a niche route operated by BA CityFlyer using planes normally serving London City airport. The Docklands airport closes for about 24 hours from lunchtime on Saturday to reduce noise nuisance. Rather than keeping all the planes on the ground, they fly a range of Mediterranean operations from UK airports.

Your mother’s flight was grounded because of a technical issue, which means that British Airways should pay £350 in compensation. The immediate problem, though, was getting home. Some passengers would have been happy to enjoy a couple of extra days in Malaga at BA’s expense. But many simply want to get home to southern England, ideally without a visit to Ireland along the way.

The option that British Airways came up with was bizarre. The obvious course of action would be to book your mother on a scheduled BA flight on Saturday to London Heathrow and the regular National Express coach from there to Southampton. Alternatively, Vueling (BA’s sister airline) could have taken her to Gatwick with a rail connection. British Airways did neither.

The airline encourages passengers who are not happy with the proposed alternative to call. But as you were not on the booking, and you failed to get any help from the airline’s customer service line, I advised you to book your mother on Ryanair from Malaga to Bournemouth – just 24 miles from the intended destination of Southampton. Having given BA a chance to solve the problem it created, you can now claim the cost of that flight along with the statutory compensation. First, though, you should notify the airline your mother will not be on the flight via Dublin.

A British Airways spokesperson told me: “We’ve apologised to customers for the disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working to get them on their way as soon as possible.”

Flying directly from London to Toronto involves the least amount of hassle (AFP/Getty)

Q I am travelling to Canada (ideally Ottawa, but Toronto is a much bigger airport) next month. I live in Hampshire so Heathrow or Gatwick are both possible. I haven’t yet booked a flight because the fares are looking expensive. What is your sense? Will they start falling nearer the time or should I just bite the bullet now?

Jane T

A London-Ottawa has not returned to the airlines’ schedules since the pandemic, and the only way to reach the Canadian capital is on connecting flights – usually via the US, requiring the extra hassle of an Esta as well as the annoyance of a transfer. Direct to Toronto is the way to go. Perhaps I have just become inured to high post-pandemic airfares across the Atlantic, but right now I am looking at flights from London to Toronto on Saturday 3 August for a week – and they don’t seem too bad.

Air Transat, a long-standing budget airline, is charging just under £800 return from London Gatwick. Air Canada from London Heathrow is just under £900. The outlier is British Airways from Heathrow, priced at over £1,200 return. Crucially these fares are cabin baggage only, but the hand luggage allowance is generous: a wheel-along case or similar plus a small backpack/laptop bag/large handbag. To take any more than this, expect to pay an extra £100 for the round trip.

To get a sense of whether fares will fall, rise or stay about the same, I have studied the latest Air Passenger Market Analysis from the International Air Transport Association (perhaps I should get out more). Capacity across the North Atlantic is up 8 per cent, and it appears demand is beginning to weaken. Within North America flights are actually emptier than a year earlier.

In your position, I would take a chance and plan to book about 10 days ahead. If you discover fares have soared, then look at indirect flights – either Play via Reykjavik (though this would mean starting in Stansted) or connecting flights on Air Transat from Gatwick. Annoying, yes, but sometimes necessary to reduce the cost of a journey.

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