Furious passengers have slammed Heathrow as they faced “mile-long” queues for immigration control on Tuesday.
Pictures from Terminal 5 showed hundreds of people waiting in line, with queues said to have lasted for more than an hour.
Among those criticising the waiting times was Conservative Lord and Defra minister Richard Benyon, who branded the wait times an “embarrassment”.
“In a queue about a quarter of a mile long at Heathrow,” he tweeted. “No one telling us about what the problem is. No staff on hand at all.
“I am embarrassed that for so many this is the first experience of UK.”
In a queue about a quarter of a mile long at Heathrow. No one telling us about what the problem is. No staff on hand at all. Welcome to Britain
— Richard Benyon (@RichardHRBenyon) March 22, 2022
Other miserable flyers said they were the “worst queues” they have “ever seen” at any airport.
One said: “Arrival lines at Heathrow at least a mile long.”
Another added: “What’s with passport control at T5 this morning? Ridiculous. At least one hour wait.”
It is the latest in a long line of disruption to hit the airport.
At the weekend, problems with baggage reclaim saw some travellers forced to leave without their possessions.
While last month British Airways cancelled short-haul flights from Heathrow due to technical issues, which caused chaos at the airport.
Heathrow blamed an “increase in passengers” for the latest problems.
Arrivals today @HeathrowAirport T5 pic.twitter.com/Iisr8AuhLy
— Save EC Rewards (@SaveECRewards) March 22, 2022
A spokesman for the airport said: “We are currently experiencing some delays processing passengers through the UK border in T5.
“Our teams are on-hand supporting passengers in the immigration halls and we are working with Border Force to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
