A nationwide technical glitch affecting British Border Force electronic gates caused delays for passengers at a number of UK airports on Tuesday.
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol airports all confirmed there were problems with passengers crossing their borders on Tuesday night.
Early Wednesday morning, the Interior Ministry announced that the electronic gates were back online just after midnight. At the same time, Heathrow Airport’s Twitter/X account said: “Following the nationwide Border Force power outage last night, all systems are now operating normally. Passengers can expect a smooth journey through Heathrow Airport. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Sorry.”
The Ministry of Interior announced that the electronic gate went down at 7:44pm on Tuesday due to a “system network” problem. There were no signs of malicious cyber activity and border security was not compromised at any point, the Home Office added.
Earlier, footage posted on social media showed large lines of passengers waiting at immigration. Manchester Airport said its specialist team and customer service staff were supporting passengers until UK Border Force resolved the issue. The hub wrote in We are supporting our staff to minimize disruption to passengers while they resolve the issue.”
Passengers are already facing disruption to and from airports due to industrial action affecting rail services across the UK throughout this week until Saturday.
Gatwick earlier announced that rail services to and from Sussex airports would be limited or suspended, and advised people to plan their journeys in advance and leave in plenty of time.
One affected person wrote to X: “Long queues are forming at Heathrow Airport and passengers are being held on arrival due to a system failure. We have been here for an hour already and the queues are only getting bigger. Can anyone give me a deadline to resolve this issue? has not been notified.”
Another posted video footage of the chaos and wrote: This is the current queue at Gatwick airport, lots of kids and no water. ”
One X user from Heathrow wrote: My taxi has been canceled, so I’ll miss the train if I continue. ” Another wrote, “After my daughter’s 12 hour flight she is still waiting in line for over 2 hours.”
