E-gate technical problems cause chaos at Heathrow and five other UK airports

Passengers have been experiencing delays at a number of UK airports due to a nationwide “technical outage” affecting UK Border Force e-gates.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol airports all confirmed problems with passengers being processed through passport control on Tuesday evening.

Footage posted on social media showed large queues of passengers waiting at passport control. Manchester airport said a dedicated team and customer services staff were supporting passengers while UK Border Force fixes the problem.

Passengers are already facing disrupted journeys to and from airports due to industrial action affecting train services across the UK throughout this week until Saturday.

Gatwick earlier said there would be limited or cancelled train services to and from the airport in Sussex and advised people to plan their journey in advance and leave additional time.

One person affected wrote on X: “Long queues at Heathrow airport where passengers are being held at arrivals for a system failure. Been here already 1 hour and the queue is only getting bigger. No communication given to anyone on what is the timeframe to sort this out.”

Another person posted video footage of the chaos and wrote: “No e-gates working. This is the current queue in Gatwick airport with lots of children and no water.”

One X user at Heathrow wrote: “Been stood here over an hour! My taxi has cancelled and at this rate I’ll be too late for a train.” Another wrote: “My daughter has been waiting in a queue for over 2 hours now after a 12-hour flight.” - Guardian