IT Glitch Causes Chaos at UK Airports – Passengers Stuck in Long Queues
THOUSANDS of passengers are facing chaos across all UK airports after are experiencing due to a nationwide IT glitch.
Technical Issue at Border Control Sparks Massive Queues
Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester are among the airports experiencing huge queues and long wait times due to a Border Control “technical issue”.
Passengers Stranded in Long Lines Due to IT Glitch
Tens of thousands of travellers landing home after holidays have spent the evening stuck in crowded queues at passport control. Pictures show fuming British citizens waiting for their passports to be checked manually because of the IT glitch.
Passenger Experiences at Affected Airports
Paul Curievici, from Haslemere in Surrey, landed at Gatwick Airport and waited in line for almost an hour at passport control. Mr. Curievici said the e-gates at Gatwick had since reopened but that fast-track passengers continued to be prioritized.
Chaos Erupts at Heathrow Airport
Sam Morter, who arrived at Heathrow from Sri Lanka, described it as “pandemonium” at passport control in Terminal 3, where all of the e-gates had blank screens. Border Force officials were seen scrambling to handle the chaos.
Warnings Issued to Ryanair Customers
Ryanair customers due to land in the UK were warned via their app about the extended queue times at passport control in UK airports due to the outage of the Electronic Passport gates.
Efforts to Resolve the IT Glitch
A Heathrow Airport spokesman mentioned that Border Force is working to resolve the issue affecting passenger processing. Manchester Airport also acknowledged the issue and mentioned that their teams are supporting passengers while the Home Office fixes the problem.
Home Office Response
A spokesperson for the Home Office stated that eGates at UK airports came back online shortly after midnight, following a network issue at 19:44 pm. They assured that border security was not compromised, and there was no indication of malicious cyber activity.
Disruption Amidst Previous Border Force Strike
The disruption comes after Border Force workers staged a four-day strike at Heathrow last week. The union mentioned that the workers were protesting against plans to introduce new rosters that could lead to job losses at passport control.