LONDON — Travelers arriving within the U.Okay. confronted hourslong delays Saturday after a technical problem close electronic border gates at airports around the nation, forcing everybody to have their passports checked manually on what used to be anticipated to be one of the vital busiest shuttle weekends of the 12 months.
The Home Office, the federal government company liable for immigration and borders, mentioned it used to be running to proper a “nationwide border system issue,” though it provided no details about what caused the problem.
Airport operators asked for patience and apologized for the delays as frustrated travelers took to social media to post photos of long lines at airports including Manchester in the north of England and London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport. Travel is expected to be especially busy over the next few days as a three-day weekend coincides with the start of a weeklong holiday for most schools in Britain.
“We are aware of a nationwide border system issue affecting arrivals into the U.K.,” the Home Office mentioned in a commentary. “We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and are liaising with port operators and airlines to minimize disruption for travelers.”
One of those affected was passenger Marc Baret. He told the BBC he had been booked on a flight from Chicago to Manchester via Heathrow, but the flight was canceled. He sought to leave the airport to catch a train and ended up in a very long passport scrum.
“It was absolute chaos at passport control,” he said. “There were people getting really frustrated and a couple of individuals tried to jump queues. The police had to get engaged and one of the passengers fainted.”
The problems, which began Friday night, come as U.K. airports, airlines and ferry operators try to rebuild goodwill with the public after a series of glitches caused travel chaos last summer when foreign travel surged following the coronavirus pandemic.
Electronic passport gates are automated self-service barriers designed to speed up processing of travel documents. Using facial recognition technology, the system verifies a traveler’s identity against the data stored in the chip in their passport.
There are now 270 such gates at 15 air and rail ports in the U.K., according to the Home Office. They are open to anyone over the age of 12 who holds a passport from the U.K., any European Union member country, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States.
About 86% of the people who enter the U.K. each year are eligible to use the electronic gates, according to the Home Office.
Heathrow and other airports promised to do what they could to ease congestion.
“We are aware of a nationwide issue impacting the eGates, which are operated by Border Force,” Heathrow mentioned in a commentary. “This factor is impacting quite a few ports of access and isn’t Heathrow particular. Our groups are running carefully with Border Force to assist get to the bottom of the problem as briefly as conceivable and we have now further colleagues readily available to set up queues and supply passenger welfare.”
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