Long queues were building at British airports on Tuesday night, including the biggest Heathrow, after the country’s Border Force suffered a nationwide technical issue that affected passport control, The Independent reported.
Britain’s leading airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted in the south, Manchester in northern England, and Edinburgh in Scotland, said they were aware of a nationwide problem and their staff were working with Border Force officials to help resolve the issue.
One traveller described border officials rushing to manually process passport holders.
He made it through the airport after around 90 minutes.
Videos posted on social media platform X showed long queues of passengers at passport desks in airports including London’s Stansted and Heathrow.
Britain’s automated border gates system crashed in May 2023, causing long queues and several hours of delays for passengers.
The country’s air traffic system also went into meltdown in August 2023 when a technical problem disrupted the National Air Traffic Service for several hours.
