Latest: UK airports hit by Easter cancellations, queues and chaos
Passengers at Heathrow Airport have reported lengthy waiting times for five days straight, with some weary travellers forced to join “a quarter of a mile long” queue after landing at Terminal 5.
The west London airport has been wracked by problems in the arrivals and check-in areas, prompting dozens of frustrated passengers to take to Twitter to demand answers.
A man named Bobby tweeted Heathrow to question why he was still queueing at immigration desks more than two-and-a-half hours after his flight arrived early on Wednesday.
"Terminal 2 plane lands 06.51 client is stuck in a queue with one desk open. Absolute disgrace!" he tweeted.
Another traveller hit out at the "exceptional queue" at immigration.
Richard Benyon, a former MP who now sits in the House of Lords, was one of hundreds of travellers caught up in the setbacks after landing at Terminal 5 early on Tuesday. He was forced to stand in a long line while waiting to be processed by Border Force staff.
“In a queue about a quarter of a mile long at Heathrow,” he tweeted. “No one telling us about what the problem is. No staff on hand at all. Welcome to Britain.”
Another passenger described the chaos as the “worst queue I have ever seen at any airport”.
“Seems over 100m long just to get to the main immigration area where there will be more queuing. What is going on?” they said.
On Monday, travellers touching down in Heathrow again reported longer-than-usual waiting times.
Passenger Martin Haven described the Terminal 5 queues as “VERY much longer” than the normal waiting period.
Theodora Lau said it took her “40 minutes to get through the queue” at immigration after landing at the UK’s busiest airport.
On Sunday, passengers also reported lengthy waiting times at Border Force desks.
Peter Anderton tweeted a photo of a packed hallway, saying: “Heathrow on Sunday night had a 100 metre queue to get into the arrivals hall which was also chaos. No explanation given.”
Julie Welham, who was at the airport on Sunday, said there were enormous queues at check-in desks.
“Queues like I have never seen – no way to work out which queue is which. 45 minutes so far waiting to check in and not even close to the front of the queue – and loads of check-in desks not even open,” she tweeted.
Marcelo Esquivel posted a photo of people queueing with trolleys at check-in desks.
"Big queues at Heathrow airport even for priority check in," he tweeted. "It looks like they don’t have enough staff for this high demand."
In pictures - decades of flight at Heathrow
Passengers at Heathrow last Saturday were also hit by chaos.
Dr Emma Chapman, a physicist at Imperial College London, shared a photo of a packed Terminal 5 showing hundreds of passengers sitting in lounge areas, cafes and restaurants waiting for flights.
She said there had been “chronic staff shortages at Heathrow” resulting in a “3 hour 20 minute delay so far”.
Last week Heathrow Airport dropped its mask mandate, meaning passengers and staff no longer need to wear face coverings.
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At a glance
Fixtures All matches start at 9.30am, at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free
Thursday UAE v Ireland; Saturday UAE v Ireland; Jan 21 UAE v Scotland; Jan 23 UAE v Scotland
UAE squad Rohan Mustafa (c), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence