Airport chaos

After a long flight the last thing you want is a delay at the airport yet that is exactly what thousands of people had to face earlier this week.

Airline passengers faced disruption on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning as computer problems caused extended queues at immigration desks.

Lengthy lines started forming at airport terminals across the country after a fault on UK Border Force computers earlier in the afternoon.

BUSY: Hundreds of customers were made to wait for more than two hours before they could get through passport control

Extra staff were drafted in to try and reduce the queue whilst a government spokesperson said the problem was being rectified at the time.

He said: “We are currently experiencing temporary IT problems which may add to the time taken to conduct passport checks.

“We are working to rectify this issue and are providing extra staff to get passengers through the controls as quickly as possible. Our priority remains security of the border.

“We apologise for any additional time this adds to passengers' journeys.”

Passengers across the country reported problems at passport control desks, mostly when trying to enter the country. The problem had a particular impact on non-EU passengers.

A Heathrow spokesman said: “There are some longer queues than normal in the terminals but we have spoken to border force and they are putting on extra staff.

“Obviously we want to sort the issue out but not risk the integrity of the border controls.”

A Birmingham airport spokesman added: “We are aware of the glitch and the impact it is having at the moment.

“It appears to be getting progressively worse but we are hoping it will be sorted out soon.

“People should be able to get off the plane, it is those coming through the immigration process which it is frustrating.”

Airports across the country were affected yet government officials insist the problem has now been rectified.