Hundreds forced to queue for hours at UK airports as e-gates 'stop working'
Hundreds of holidaymakers were forced to queue for hours overnight after passport e-gates stopped working in the UK.
Border Force carried out "routine maintenance" across all airports, leaving passengers stuck in "standstill" lines for up to two hours at passport control. Some took to social media to vent their frustration, with one person writing: "Said today that the only good thing about England is the airport efficiency, but even that’s not true. It’s 3am, there are fights and electric gates aren’t open.
"Standstill queues straight off the delayed flights. This country is an actual shambles." Another customer wrote: "Shameful/disgraceful situation at Gatwick Airport this morning - flight already delayed by over 2 hours, then on landing (at 1am) we were held in a queue for over an hour to get to passport control (egates not in operation initially!!!!) everyone queued to go through manually."
A third added: "Gatwick Airport is rubbish. waiting at passport control over one hour 15 minutes. EasyJet plane landed two hours at 1.46am now it’s 3.09am. Missed the last train to Clarksville’s and Victoria." And a fourth wrote alongside a picture of a huge queue: "This country in the early hours at #LondonLutonAirport."
A spokeswoman for Gatwick Airport confirmed there was a national e-gate outage for a "period overnight". She said: "There was a planned national e-gate outage last night, operated by Border Force, for routine maintenance across all airports. We apologise to passengers for any inconvenience experienced."
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A London Luton Airport spokesperson added: "We are aware that some passengers may have experienced longer than usual wait times at immigration in the early hours of this morning whilst national maintenance work took place on the e-gates which are operated by Border Force. The welfare of our passengers is always our number one priority and additional airport staff were on hand to provide assistance. We apologise for any impact this may have had to passenger journeys."
Passengers at Bristol Airport also complained of delays, with one tweeting: "5 flights arriving in the space of 30 minutes, over an hour long queue for PP control with children at 1am aaaaaand all the eGates are closed…". Earlier this year in May, all e-gates similarly stopped working at UK airports.
That time was due to a technical problem, which led to lenghty waits for travellers leaving and entering the UK at the start of a busy holiday weekend. In some instances, passengers fainted. At the time, a Home Office spokeswoman said that Border Force had put in place "robust plans" to deploy officers to minimise disruption and wait times.
The automated e-gate system is available for British citizens aged over 12 and those from the EU, as well as people from several other countries including Australia, Canada, the US, Japan and New Zealand.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "This morning, e-gates at Luton and Gatwick were temporarily closed for routine maintenance. We have been working hard to minimise disruption and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused."
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