Travellers have been stuck in huge queues for at least 45 minutes after a Border Force outage hit UK airports including Edinburgh, with the Home Office confirming problems with e-Gates
A Border Force outage is affecting UK airports prompting chaos for travellers up and down the country.
An issue with e-gates has caused huge queues to form in airport terminals, the Home Office has confirmed. Edinburgh Airport posted a warning about the tech outage this afternoon (April 25) with no hint as to when the issue will be resolved and large queues snaking through the arrivals hall. Lengthy lines have also emerged at Gatwick Airport, with issues also reported at Heathrow and Luton. One Mirror reader said they’d queues for an hour to get through the e-gates at Stansted.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said at 4pm: “We are aware of a technical issue affecting eGates across the country. We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused.”
One passenger at the Scottish airport said passport control was “completely jammed up”, and that they had received “zero communication”. A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said longer wait times for arriving passengers could be expected, with teams in the arrivals hall providing support.
The UK Border Force, which manages passport control in the airport, is said to be working to fix the issue. A statement from bosses at Edinburgh Airport said: “Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide technical outage affecting airports across the UK. This is resulting in longer wait times for arriving passengers.”
Have you been impacted by the passport control issues? Email [email protected]
Taking to Twitter/Andrew Heald said: “Chaos at Edinburgh Airport. Huge queues out on to the tarmac for in bound passenger – passport control completely jammed up. Zero communication from anyone at the airport. I was waiting for 70 minutes and there were no announcements over the PA system or apologies.”
It is not currently clear whether other airports have been impacted by the Border Force issue. Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick airports have all been approached for comment, as well as the Home Office which runs Border Force.
A statement from Gatwick Airport read: “We’re sorry for any waiting time. This is due to a nationwide issue with UK Border Force e-gates. Our staff are working with Border Force who operate passport control including the e-gates to provide assistance to passengers.”
A frustrated passenger wrote on Twitter: “Loads of luggage lined up in Heathrow baggage claim as there are massive queues for non UK/EU/US passport holders. Honestly surprised people still come to this country.”
Just this week Border Force staff working at Heathrow airport confirmed plans to walk out for four days from April 29 to May 2 in a dispute over their working conditions. More than 300 members of the PCS union, which represents Border Force officers, working at terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 will go on strike.
The PCS union has said the strike is about planned alterations to shift patterns “would have a detrimental effect on all the current staff and leave nearly 250 without a job on passport control, including many with disabilities or caring responsibilities. If they refuse to accept the new contracts, they would be forced to seek jobs elsewhere in the Home Office.”
How such tech issues would impact airports in the future – when facial recognition is likely to do away with the need for more human workers – is unclear.
At the state of 2024 Phil Douglas, the director general of Border Force, said he had been “really impressed” by e-gate schemes powered by facial recognition in Australia and Dubai, while expressing hopes of introducing a similar scheme in the UK.
“I had to apply for an electronic travel authorisation in advance and used my smartphone to read the chip in my passport. That sent the image of me in the chip to the Australian authorities. When I arrived in Australia, I didn’t even have to get my passport out of my bag. It is a really interesting concept,” he told the Times.
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