New figures reveal full extent of Heathrow passport control chaos
THE FULL extent of the border crisis at Heathrow was laid bare yesterday in new figures that showed passengers wait up to three hours to clear immigration.
Airport owner BAA showed that the UK Border Force failed to hit time targets at Heathrow on most days in April – and one in four passengers from outside Europe are waiting longer than the government’s 45 minute goal.
At Terminal 5, the target was missed on 23 out of 30 days. At Terminals 3 and 4, the Border Force failed on 21 days.
Immigration minister Damian Green assured parliament on Monday that passengers never wait more than 90 minutes, but BAA found instances on 30 April of passengers queuing for three hours at terminal four.
And delays could get even worse next week, when immigration staff walk out as part of a national strike over public sector pensions.
Green and home secretary Theresa May met with airlines yesterday to thrash out contingency plans.
Simon Buck of airline group BATA said the meetings were constructive but that “there won’t be improvements overnight”.
Following the meeting, the Border Force said that a further 400 immigration staff will be drafted in at Heathrow to help deal with the huge influx of tourists around the Olympics.
“In the longer term our management and rostering changes will address the issue of queues,” a spokesperson said yesterday.