BA to fingerprint domestic passengers

[Peter Fairbrother]

Roland Perry wrote:
>>From their latest newsletter about Terminal 5 at Heathrow:
> 
>         "To allow both international and UK domestic customers at
>         Terminal 5 to enjoy the wonderful array of shops and restaurants
>         on the concourses, there is now a new biometric check for
>         domestic customers. Quick and safe, your fingerprints will be
>         scanned electronically at Security and then again as you board.
>         After this, all records are deleted, so you don't need to worry
>         about them being kept on file."
> 
> Which raises more questions than it answers. I'm struggling to
> understand the model here (although it presumably will all become clear
> when it starts working).
> 
> 1) What if I'm a domestic passenger and don't want to use the shops and
>     restaurants - is there a bypass lane straight to the domestic gates?
> 
> 2) What's special at T5 - domestic and international passengers mingle
>     freely in the shops and bars at East Midlands Airport
> 
> 3) Why fingerprint just domestic passengers - surely all passengers have
>     to provide photo ID?
> 
> 4) If this is a scheme to identify domestic passengers with sub-standard
>     photo ID, surely the objective would be to stop a passenger who had
>     bought a domestic ticket and gone airside with reduced credentials
>     from boarding an *International* flight (whose boarding pass he had
>     secreted about his person earlier). So this is backwards - what you
>     need to do is fingerprint the international passengers.
> 
> 5) All records are deleted. Yes, of course they are (BA don't say when,
>     "after" could be much longer than 5 min after the plane departs).

But can't you just ask the nice terrorist from IraX to do your shopping 
for you?

-- Peter Fairbrother