Passengers travelling through the UK’s airports are facing lengthy delays due to a technical issue with passport control e-gates. Late on Tuesday, airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, and Manchester confirmed that a Border Force problem had caused delays. The Home Office, which oversees Border Force, apologised to all affected passengers and stated that it was working with the agency and the affected airports to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Pictures and videos of long queues have been shared on social media.
E-gates are automated machines that check a person’s identity using facial recognition and allow them to enter the country without speaking to a Border Force officer. There are over 270 e-gates installed at 15 ports in the UK, according to the government’s website. The goal of the e-gates is to make travel into the UK faster and more efficient. However, it is not clear what the nature of the technical fault is or how it occurred.
Manchester Airport has stated that its customer-service colleagues are supporting passengers affected by the delays by providing water. The airport has also stated that it will waive any extra charges for delayed passengers leaving car parks due to the e-gate malfunction. A passenger returning to the UK from Sri Lanka described the scenes at Heathrow as “chaotic,” adding that border officials were manually processing passport holders.
This is not the first instance of a malfunction of the UK’s automated e-gates. In May 2023, airports were also affected by an IT issue, and in August 2022, approximately 2,000 flights were cancelled when the National Air Traffic Services’ automated flight plan processing system failed. Passengers travelling through UK airports affected by the e-gate issue are advised to prepare for delays and to contact their airline or airport for more information
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