Fury as passengers face huge queues during fourth day of chaos at Heathrow

Heathrow is now in the grip of a fourth day of queueing chaos as passengers faced yet more huge waits at the border – with one frustrated passenger comparing the scenes to the dying days of the Soviet Union.

Pictures and video from around midday showed long snaking lines of travellers packed closely together with no social distancing, as some aired themselves with leaflets in an attempt to stay cool.

Journalist Guy Faulconbridge tweeted: ‘Reminds me of travelling around the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Children playing on the floor of the airport while their parents wait for officials to check some very important documents. ”Welcome to the United Kingdom…”

He added: ‘Is there perhaps a lack of logic here: UK citizens have to pay for loads of tests but we are greeted with this at @HeathrowAirport (partly due to spot checks for the passenger locator form)…’

Mr Faulconbridge then posted an image taken an hour after arriving, showing the line had barely budged.

The Home Office has continued with its unapologetic stance despite widespread public fury, with a spokesman yesterday saying travellers would ‘need to accept’ increased wait times due to high summer demand and the need to check Covid documents.

Long queues at immigration has been a problem at Heathrow numerous times this summer. The issue flared up again on Sunday – with some passengers reporting waits of up to five hours – and is now into its fourth consecutive day.

Yesterday, one traveller wrote on Twitter that a queue for families with children had lasted three hours.

Another described the wait for families as ‘shameful’, adding that the UK ‘must be the only country which treats families worse than adults’.

On Monday a passenger said the immigration process in Terminal 2 was ‘incompetent, ridiculous’, adding that he was forced to wait for more than five hours with ‘no water, no bathroom’.

Heathrow tweeted that Border Force is ‘currently experiencing some delays as they conduct additional spot checks to ensure passenger compliance with the UK Government’s latest entry requirements’.

It went on: ‘Waiting times at the border have on occasion been unacceptable and we have called on the UK Government to address the problem as a matter of urgency.’

Yesterday, travel firms told MailOnline the length queues were damaging to Britain’s image and risked putting off future visitors.

The issue has been exacerbated by a shortage of Border Force agents and many going into self-isolation for Covid. 

But yesterday a senior Tory MP insisted the issues should have been addressed ‘a long time ago’. 

‘This has been a constant problem throughout the pandemic and I appreciate the Home Office may have had difficulties recruiting to the Border Force but that is not a new problem,’ the MP told MailOnline. 

‘They should have addressed this a long time ago. It adds to travel uncertainty and it is not good for the travel industry or the travelling public. The Border Force needs to be better organised.’  

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Our utmost priority is protecting the safety and health of the public and we will never compromise on security, and on ensuring passengers are compliant with the current health measures, which means passengers will need to accept an increase in the time taken to cross the border.

‘The rollout of upgrades to our eGates to automate checks for health requirements is ongoing, with many eGates already in operation and more to be added over the coming months to increase automated checks on passengers at airports.

‘However, for safeguarding reasons families with children under the age of 12 are not permitted to use the eGates.

‘Where there are high volumes of families with young children, such as over the summer holidays, Border Force may dynamically deploy resources to frontline desks instead and we continue to flexibly deploy our staff to make the process as smooth as possible.’