Heathrow queues: Millions could face airport delays this summer as Border Agency crisis continues

Heathrow queues: Millions could face airport delays this summer as Border Agency crisis continues

By Ray Massey and Nick Mcdermott

PUBLISHED: 07:38 EST, 1 May 2012 | UPDATED: 09:39 EST, 1 May 2012

Millions of holidaymakers could face unprecedented delays this summer as stricter Border Agency checks, staff cuts and increased passengers cause a 'perfect storm' at UK airports.

The warning comes after passengers complained of two-and-a-half-hour queues at Heathrow Airport's passport control last week, with those passing through non-EU passport control reporting only one person on duty.

But Brian Moore, the head of the UK Border Force, has remained unapologetic, saying his reaction to the queues was 'so be it', while immigration Minister Damian Green simply said last week's queues were down to 'bad weather'.

Long wait: Passengers began to vent their fury at being stuck in queues at Heathrow Terminal 5's passport control

However, leaked documents revealed that limits for waiting times at Heathrow's Terminal 3 were broken 107 times in just two weeks.

The official 45-minute waiting time for passengers from outside Europe arriving at Terminal 3 was broken 82 times in the first two weeks of April. The longest wait faced by non-European passengers was 91 minutes.

European passport holders, including British travellers, had to wait longer than the 25-minute limit on five occasions. There were even 20 delays at the fast-track 'e-gates'.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways' parent company IAG has launched a tirade against the Border Agency's ‘pathetic’ performance and furious tourists caught in the queues have sworn not to visit the UK again.

Paralysis: The head of the UK's Border Force Brian Moore was asked how he would react if there were four-hour queues during the Olympics, he replied: 'So be it'

In the House of Commons, Mr Green played down reports of delays, citing internal figures showing targets were largely being met, and hit out at the ‘wild’ exaggeration of delays.

But Green branded the leaked data 'unreliable' and claimed the statistics from the Border Force were more accurate.

He said targets for the vast majority of European and UK passport holders to be processed within 25 minutes and non-European nationals within 45 minutes were largely being met.

However, Mr Walsh argued that ministers’ suggestions that targets were being met ‘has no statistical relevance and is completely meaningless’. He said the Home Office survey sampled less than 0.2 per cent of passengers.

‘This sample size has no statistical relevance and is completely meaningless. It is also at stark variance with the experience of hundreds of thousands of citizens,’ he said.

Airlines continued to warn of the potential for gridlock in the coming months, and unions said delays would be made worse by cuts to Border Force staff, whose numbers are set to fall by around 1,500 â€" or one sixth of the total â€" by 2015.

Anger: Frustrated passengers forced to wait more than two hours at Heathrow jeered immigration officials

Over the weekend, frustrated passengers told of how people jeered at passport control after being kept waiting for up to two hours.

One passenger, agency worker Winnie Ng, 29, who holds a New Zealand passport and had flown in from Seattle, said: ‘It was ridiculous, I have never seen it so bad.

‘There was only one person dealing with those holding non-EU passports and the queue had overflowed into the back corridors.

‘Then even that one person left to go on a lunch break and the line just stopped. The crowd started shouting and booing, and one man was even taken aside by airport staff for voicing his opinions a little too loudly. But everyone cheered him on and walked up to shake his hand.'

Businessman Mike Patterson, 42, and his wife Lori, also arrived on the 12pm Seattle flight for a week-long holiday and vowed never to return to Britain after waiting more than two hours at passport control.

‘When we turned up there were five desks open for those without EU passports, but they soon closed and there was only one official serving hundreds of people. But then she even went for a break, so there was just nobody and everything crawled to a halt,’ he said.

‘The experience has far from welcoming and we are never coming back. Maybe it’s all a ruse for the Olympics. At this rate, only British athletes will win gold because no one else will be able to make it over.’

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