Airport delays – live: Bank Holiday travel chaos as passport e-gates fail across UK

Issue likely to cause long delays at passport controls for bank holiday travelers flying into the country

UK: British Airways System Outage Sparks Chaos At Heathrow Airport

Passengers are facing travel chaos as electronic passport gates have gone down across UK airports.

The issue is likely to cause long delays at passport controls for bank holiday travelers flying into the country as all airports that use the gates are affected.

The Home Office has confirmed the news after the system went down on Friday night - but did not say how long the fault would last.

One passenger has described scenes at Edinburgh Airport as a “shambles”, reporting a queue of over 300 people at passport control on Friday night.

Another spoke of “total chaos” at Gatwick Airport’s passport control, with “queues of over an hour” caused by the downing of the electronic passport gates.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of a nationwide border system issue affecting arrivals into the UK.

“We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and are liaising with port operators and airlines to minimise disruption for travellers.”

This comes after thousands of people faced having their bank holiday plans plunged into chaos, as British Airways was forced to cancel scores of flights on Thursday and Friday following an IT failure.

Key Points

• Bank Holiday travel chaos as passport e-gates fail across UK
• Passengers describe ‘shambles’ and ‘total chaos’ across UK
• Thousands of holidaymakers hit as British Airways cancels 170 flights after IT failure
• RAC warns of ‘hectic’ bank holiday traffic as 19 million leisure journeys expected
• Situation going ‘according to plan’ at ‘busy’ Port of Dover

[26 May 2023 10:01 · Andy Gregory]

Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s bank holiday travel blog, which we’ll be using to bring you the latest updates.