Have you had any problems with ePassport gates at UK airports? | air transport

A nationwide e-Passport gate technical system failure left thousands of passengers waiting in line at airports for more than three hours on Tuesday evening.

Almost all major airports in the UK were affected, with 270 e-gates – automatic facial recognition systems – at the border closed for more than four hours.

So what exactly happened, can those affected receive compensation, and can that happen?

What happen?

Shortly before 8pm on Tuesday, engineers discovered a network issue with the system that operates e-gates installed at 15 air and rail ports across the country. It also affected some police, passport and immigration systems.

The issue has led to the closure of e-gates at major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh. Instead, border officials had to process travelers manually, causing massive delays and delays. The system came back online at 12:30 AM.

Despite calls for transparency about what's behind the problem, the government has so far taken an ambiguous stance, blaming technical problems within the Home Office's network.

Tom Pursglove, the Secretary of State for Legal Immigration and Borders, said in a statement to Parliament that he was confident the Border Force had found a permanent solution to the problem.

He ruled out a cyberattack as the cause but gave no further details, saying he did not want to preempt an investigation being conducted by the Home Office.

Pursglove said: We sincerely apologize for any confusion caused. I can assure the House that the Home Secretary and I will remain firm in our resolve to ensure that every possible lesson is learned and that this never happens again.

Has this happened before?

The outage was the latest in a long line of failures in the e-gate system.

Two weeks ago, a nationwide technology outage led to queues at Edinburgh, Gatwick and Bristol airports.

The most serious recent breakdown occurred in May last year. Passengers at UK airports and ports have experienced long delays ahead of the second bank holiday in May. Again, the Home Office blamed a system glitch affecting all e-gates entering the country.

This comes after three e-gate outages across UK airports in the last three months of 2021.

Government watchdogs have repeatedly warned about the system in recent years.

A report by David Neal, then the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, warned that the e-gate system would fail to operate in 2021. Gates found last summer that border protection was neither effective nor efficient, with e-gates sometimes left unstaffed.

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Will affected passengers receive compensation?

It is unlikely that most passengers will receive compensation.

These incidents are considered extraordinary events by airlines and are not subject to European-wide regulations requiring airlines to provide assistance or compensation to passengers if their flights are delayed or cancelled.

But which book's editor, Rory Boland? Travel says some passengers may be able to recover some of their money through travel insurance.

He says: In addition to connecting flights, there are other ancillary costs that some people may incur, such as parking at the airport, parking fees for late pick-ups, and having to pay for taxis due to public transport being cut off.

It is worth checking your insurance policy to see if you are eligible for these benefits.

Could this happen again?

There are fears this will not be the last system-wide failure.

A government adviser told the Guardian that travelers could face a summer of chaos as the government cannot guarantee the system will not collapse again.

One of the vulnerabilities is that it could be exposed to individual errors, which could affect the entire system, Whitehall sources say. The problem is the lack of investment under successive governments. And this is a flaw that cannot be easily fixed, requiring you to tear down the system and start over.

Lord Foster, chairman of the Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee, said it was of utmost importance that the Government learn from the incident, especially as the new Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system is due to be rolled out for the remainder of 2024.

The ETA is a similar permit to the US Electronic Travel Authorization system, known as Esta, which requires both non-British and Irish travelers to enter the UK and is designed to deter potential threats to the country at the border.

He said: The Government's ambition is to have the most effective border in the world. To achieve these ambitions, the government must get the basics right.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/queues-as-electronic-passport-gate-technology-fails-at-uk-airports The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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