LONDON: Travellers arriving in the UK faced hours long delays on Saturday after a technical problem shut electronic border gates at airports across the country, forcing everyone to have their passports checked manually on what was expected to be one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
The Home Office, the government agency responsible for immigration and borders, said it was working to correct a “nationwide border system issue”, though it provided no details about what caused the problem.
Airport operators asked for patience and apologised for the delays as frustrated travellers 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 week long holiday for most schools in Britain.
“We are aware of a nationwide border system issue affecting arrivals into the UK,” the Home Office said in a statement.
“We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and are liaising with port operators and airlines to minimise disruption for travellers.” The problems, which began Friday night, come as UK 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 that are designed to speed up processing of travel documents.
Using facial recognition technology, the system verifies a traveller’s identity against the data stored in the chip in their passport.