Long queue woes at Heathrow airport
Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow airport had to queue at passport control for up to two-and-a-half hours in July, official figures showed, sparking further criticism from aviation chiefs about delays caused by Britain’s border regime.
The Border Force missed its 45-minute or less target for passport check wait times for 95 percent of visitors from outside the European Economic Area on all but one day last month, according to the data obtained by UK-based airline Virgin Atlantic.
Queues were longest on July 6 when non-EEA visitors had to wait for up to two hours and 36 minutes at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport.
The boss of Virgin Atlantic called the queue times “unacceptable”, adding to criticism from the chief executive of British Airways, who said last week that Heathrow’s queues were worse than at other major world airport.
“We all agree that security and safety at our airports is vital and remains our top priority, but other countries are managing their borders more effectively,” Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Craig Kreeger said in a statement yesterday.
Britain’s Home Office, responsible for Border Force operations, said it was deploying an extra 200 staff at Heathrow this summer, who would all be in place during peak travel periods in August and September. It said in a statement that it would not compromise on border checks and was working to cut waiting times.
Heathrow Airport’s CEO John Holland-Kaye last week called on the Home Office to let visitors from low risk countries such as the US use the electronic passport gates.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.