UK airport chaos: Border Force delays as 'nationwide outage' causes chaos
Electronic gates used to scan and authorise passports across UK airports have been plagued with a glitch - causing mega queues for thousands of travellers.
At least five major airports and London's Eurostar terminals are all seeing huge queues thanks to a Border Force outage affecting electronic passport control gates.
The UK-wide issue was first reported by Edinburgh Airport this afternoon (April 25) with no hint as to when the issue will be resolved. The electronic gates are used to speed up passport control processes, with passengers having to look into a camera and scan their passport in order to be granted entry into the country.
This method has replaced physical Border Force officers in some instances, but some airports offer both methods.
Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick, Manchester Airport, London Luton and Stansted are among the major airports seeing queues.
A Home Office spokesman told Express.co.uk: "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.”
This is a live blog. See below for the latest updates.
Are you affected? Email victoria.chessum@reachplc.com or casey.cooper-fiske@reachplc.com.
KEY EVENTS
Issue resolved
Air passengers across the country will be breathing a sigh of relief after Border Force confirmed the issue has now been resolved.
Some long queues still remain at the busiest airports while the backlog of passengers is cleared.
Edinburgh Airport says it hopes a solution will be found soon
Edinburgh Airport which is seeing long delays as all passports are checked by hand has said it hopes a solution will soon be found.
A statement from the airport read: "Border Force colleagues continue to work on this UK-wide issue impacting eGates at airports.
"UKBF staff are now manning all desks at EDI to complete checks on arriving passengers.
"We hope a solution will be found soon and thank passengers for their patience."
Pictures show full extent of long queues at border control
Pictures taken by a passenger at Stansted Airport have shown the full extent of delays.
Travellers can be seen snaking back through the terminal as passports are checked by hand.
Kate Gleeson, who took the photos said she was expecting a wait of about an hour.
Birmingham Airport confirms it has been impacted
Birmingham Airport has confirmed it is currently being affected by the e-gate outage.
A Birmingham Airport spokeswoman said: “Birmingham Airport’s e-Gate facility, which is controlled by the Home Office, is currently out of service. The Home Office is aware and is working to resolve the issue.
“Customer arriving into Birmingham Airport will be directed to the manned desks to be processed through the border.”
What are e-gates?
E-gates have been causing long delays at airports across the country, but what are they?
The equipment will be familiar to those who regularly fly from Britain's airports with travellers who have electronic passports using them to pass through border control.
At a number of UK airports they have mostly replaced manned border gates, which still check the passports of those who do not have an electronic chip or those whose electronic passport is not working.
Liverpool Airport not impacted by delays arising from e-gate outages
Liverpool Airport has told the Express it is not impacted by issues with e-gates as it does not have any.
Heathrow Airport says 'contingency measures' are in place to ease queues
Heathrow Airport has told the Express it has put contingency measures in place to deal with queues as a result of the e-gate outage.
Passenger confirms Eurostar at St Pancras International is impacted
It is not just planes that have been affected by today's e-gate outages, with one Eurostar passenger at St Pancras International in London confirming there are long queues at the train station.
Well here we are at departure time. Rather a long way to go
— Doug Parr (@doug_parr) April 25, 2024
Seems it is not @Eurostar s fault but British passport control have an IT \u2018network\u2019 issue and are doing all passport checks by hand \ud83d\ude44#brokenBritain pic.twitter.com/S2aoBNK8JF
Gatwick Airport warns passengers of delays
Gatwick Airport has confirmed to the Express that it is affected by issues and has warned passengers of delays.
A spokeswoman said: "Some passengers may experience delays at immigration due to a nationwide issue with UK Border Force e-gates.
"Our staff are working with UK Border Force - who operate passport control including the e-gates - to provide assistance to passengers where necessary.”
Border Force officials working to 'resolve the issue as soon as possible'
A Home Office spokesman has confirmed Border Force e-gates are suffering from an outage and says officials are working to resolve the issue.
He said: "We are aware of a technical issue affecting e-gates across the country.
“We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused.”
Manchester Airport 'not seeing significant issues' as a result of outages
Manchester Airport has told the Express it is "not seeing significant issues" as a result of e-gate outages across the UK.
Passenger at Luton Airport confirms its e-gates are affected
A passenger at Luton Airport has confirmed its e-gates are currently down.
The passenger took to Twitter to post a photo of the chaos at passport control.
Welcome to Luton, where the automated passport gates aren't working... pic.twitter.com/v0qKuCnMcT
\u2014 Beard On The Block (@BeardOnTheBlock) April 25, 2024
Stansted Airport confirms its e-gates are down
Stansted Airport has confirmed to the Express that its e-gates are also down.
A spokesman for Stansted Airport said: "UK Border Force e-gates have been affected by a technical issue since around midday at a number of UK ports, including London Stansted.
"UKBF is conducting manual checks with more desks open to minimise any disruption to passengers."
Passenger at Gatwick Airport confirms e-gates are down
A passenger travelling through Gatwick Airport has confirmed there are long delays at passport control as a result of the Border Force e-gate outage.
Traveller Kim Brooks told the Express: "Just travelled through Gatwick Airport, the outage was there also.
E-gate issues causing long queues at passport control
The Border Force e-gate outage is causing long queues at airports across the country.
Following the delays, Twitter users have been posting pictures of trails of frustrated holidaymakers.
this is awful \ud83d\ude29\ud83d\ude29 all the egates in the uk airports arent working \ud83e\udd26\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2640\ufe0f pic.twitter.com/0SWcIzn6yU
\u2014 kat\u2077\u2077 (@valtterib0ttas) April 25, 2024
Heathrow confirms it is affected by e-gate outages
Heathrow Airport has confirmed to the Express it has been impacted by Border Force issues.
It is thought that e-gates for electronic passports have stopped working at airports across the country.
E-Gates experiencing problems, airport says
Electronic Border Force gates, which use facial recognition technology to accept passports of those entering the UK, are reportedly at fault. That's according to Edinburgh Airport.
\u2139\ufe0f| Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide technical outage affecting airports across the UK.
— Edinburgh Airport (@EDI_Airport) April 25, 2024
This is resulting in longer wait times for arriving passengers. Our teams are in the arrivals hall providing support as partners from UKBF work to fix the issue.
Edinburgh Airport departures - disruption to flights
Live airport departures show many of the scheduled flights this afternoon are still going ahead.
There are a selection that are cancelled - but there's nothing to suggest this is related to long queues within the terminals.
Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport have both been approached for comment.
What we know so far
Edinburgh Airport posted the announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying the outage, affecting Border Force, is "nationwide".
We are yet to have any confirmation as to how far this extends.
Pictures show huge '45 minute' queues
Reports from our sister website, EdinburghLive, say people have been queuing for 45 minutes. Pictures from the scene show travellers crammed in a tight corridor space as they await more news
Welcome to our live coverage
This is an ongoing, breaking incident with more information to come. Are you held up in delays? Get in touch by emailing: victoria.chessum@reachplc.com.