- By Michael Race
- Business reporter, BBC News
A “technical issue” affecting passport management e-gates is causing lengthy queues at airports throughout the nation.
Airports together with Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Manchester all confirmed a Border Force drawback was causing delays late on Tuesday.
The airports mentioned they had been supporting Border Force to “minimise disruption”.
Pictures and movies are circulating on social media exhibiting lengthy queues.
The Home Office, which oversees Border Force, mentioned it was working with the company and affected airports to “resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused.”
It has not offered any additional particulars concerning the nature of the technical fault or the way it occurred.
E-gates are automated gates that use facial recognition to test an individual’s id and permit them to enter the nation with out speaking to a Border Force officer.
There are greater than 270 of them in place at 15 air and rail ports within the UK, based on the federal government’s web site, which additionally says they’re imagined to “enable quicker travel into the UK”.
Image supply, Hristo Totochev
Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport, apologised to passengers for the delays to journeys and added it was supporting Border Force “with their contingency plans”.
“Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue which is impacting passengers being processed through the Border,” an airport spokesperson mentioned.
A Gatwick spokesperson added that their workers had been working with UK Border Force – who function passport management together with the e-gates – “to provide assistance to passengers where necessary”.
Belfast International Airport mentioned it was working with Border Force “to deploy contingency plans to process internationally-arriving flights while the situation is resolved”.
Manchester Airport mentioned its customer-services colleagues had been supporting passengers by handing out water to these experiencing delays. It added any extra prices for people who find themselves late to go away automobile parks on account of the issues would even be waived.
Steven Brownrigg, who arrived on a flight into Manchester Airport, informed the BBC there have been “several flights in quick succession, which meant a lot of passengers” queueing for passport management.
“I was in the queue for around 90 minutes. Priority was given to families with small children and vulnerable passengers, and staff were handing out bottled water to everyone,” he mentioned.
“Generally, most were frustrated but accepted the situation, but a few people were unhappy and questioned staff.”
A passenger at Heathrow described border officers speeding to manually course of passport holders.
“All the e-gates were totally blank and there was just a lot of chaotic scenes,” mentioned Sam Morter, 32, who was returning after a vacation in Sri Lanka.
He mentioned he made it via the airport after about 90 minutes.
