Alexandra Jones
(Picture: ES / Natasha Pszenicki)Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that “hell is other people”. Had he been alive yesterday, he would have been more specific — truly hell is other people trapped in the baggage hall at Heathrow. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The hellscape actually began a week before that when a perfect storm of Covid-related staff shortages and a surge in Easter travellers meant that more than 1,000 flights were cancelled, causing hours-long queues at airports.
I arrived three hours early for my first long-haul trip in more than two years — just as well because it took more than two hours to get to the check-in desk. Even the staff seemed taken aback by how busy the airport was. “Surely you knew how many people to expect?” the man in front of me asked. “How has any of this come as a surprise?” he said, gesturing to the check-in queue which ran the length of Heathrow Terminal 3 and snaked six lines deep.
