Chaos at UK airports after Border Force gates fail, causing long queues

UK airports have seen long queues and delays after the country’s border enforcement system was hit by a nationwide problem.

Images on social media showed huge queues outside gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Edinburgh and Manchester as thousands waited for their passports to be checked.

Passenger Harmeet Singh, who arrived at Stansted on Tuesday night, described the delays as “complete madness” with no one in charge.

He said The Independent: “I observed huge lawless queues with no one in charge. My wife has a back muscle injury and I asked the staff three times for a chair but they were of no help.

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“More and more passengers arrived, the gangways to the toilets were blocked, 10-15 disabled passengers were waiting and unhappy. It was total madness.”

Another passenger said he landed at Manchester Airport and faced “huge queues” at passport control and was told the terminal’s electronic gates were down.

He said: “Woohoo, landed back at Manchester airport to find huge queues for passport control. E gates are all over the country. The joys of technology. Great when it works.”

Simon Calder, Of the Independent travel correspondent of, said: “EGates are a critical component of the UK Border Force operation at London Heathrow and all major airports – as well as the Eurostar terminal at Paris Gare du Nord.

“A large majority of arriving passengers can use them: adults from the UK, the European Union, North America, Australasia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

“As most arriving travelers are processed automatically, this allows officers to focus on people from other parts of the world who need visas.

“All staffing arrangements are made on the assumption that eGates will take care of the majority of passengers. As we saw almost a year ago – over the late May bank holiday weekend in 2023 – when they fail nationally, things unravel very quickly.”

A London Gatwick spokesman said: “Some passengers may experience delays at immigration due to a nationwide issue with UK Border Force electronic gates.

“Our staff work with the UK Border Force – who operate passport control, including electronic gates – to provide assistance to passengers where needed.”

A Heathrow spokesman said: “Border Force is currently dealing with a nationwide issue affecting passengers being processed through the border.

“Our teams are supporting the Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible and are available to provide passenger welfare. We apologize for any impact this has on passenger journeys.”

Manchester Airport’s statement said: “We are aware of an issue with UK Border Force systems across the country which is affecting a significant number of airports.

“Our resilience team and customer service colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office resolve the issue.”

London Stansted and Edinburgh airports also said they were affected by the problem, with UK Border Force working to fix the issue.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are aware of a technical issue affecting eGates across the country. We are working closely with the Border Force and affected airports to resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologize to all passengers for any inconvenience caused.”