What if you have a long layover between connecting flights and not only is the airport not open 24 hours a day, but you also don’t have immigration clearance to exit the airport terminal?
This may be a question you’ve had to think about, but it’s a dilemma faced by thousands of transit passengers every year at airports around the world.
In some cases, airports are fully prepared for transit passengers who do not have the right to “land” in a transit country, such as Singapore Changi or Dubai International.
For example, Doha’s Hamad International Airport not only operates day and night, but also has airside hotels that passengers can use without ever setting foot on Qatari soil.
However, Heathrow Airport in west London has no airside hotel, and the night jet ban means the airside part of the airport will effectively be closed from 11:30pm to 6am.
So what happens to passengers who are stranded in transit with nowhere to go? In fact, Heathrow Airport has a dedicated overnight rest facility, which is simply a secured gate area in Terminal 3.
Passengers who are not allowed to leave the airport at night are taken to a secure gate area, but Heathrow has “minimal” facilities available, with only vending machines available if they want something to eat or drink. It warns that it is only a machine.
The airport never intended for large numbers of passengers to use emergency night rest facilities, but in a recent internal memo the airport has advised staff that only those who do not have the right to enter the UK should be allowed to use emergency night rest facilities at night. They warned that they should be directed to a rest facility.
The memo said: “Many passengers using overnight rest areas at Heathrow Airport are likely to be able to land and use ground accommodation and should not remain airside and use the facilities.” has been done.
Despite the fact that this practice is generally prohibited, it has been discovered that people who are able to land themselves in the UK are choosing to remain airside and camp out in overnight rest areas at Heathrow Airport.
Airports are now warning that passengers caught doing so could be sent to the border and asked to land in person.
Of course, Heathrow’s night rest facilities are generally seen as one of last resort, a safe place to stay for those who have no choice but to camp at the airport, and are not a place to camp simply because you are unwell. there is no. I want to spend money on a hotel room.
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