Government issues statement after chaos at Manchester Airport

The government issued a statement after a nationwide blackout caused chaos at Manchester Airport this week. Airports across the country have been affected by the eGates problem, which led to huge queues at passport control on Thursday (April 25).

An arriving passenger at Manchester Airport said he waited an hour and 20 minutes to go through passport control at Terminal 3. Tom Amos, who was flying back from Alicante, said Manchester Evening News that the queue wound along three corridors.

He criticized Manchester Airport’s lack of communication, telling the MEN that passengers were not made aware of the problem until they had been queuing for half an hour. Manchester Airport has apologized to passengers for the inconvenience caused by the disruption.

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Another passenger reported problems with passport scanners at departures as well. Rita Stuart, who was flying to Turkey, was turned away and told to return later after trying to get through security less than three hours before her flight was due to take off.

She told MEN that other passengers were also struggling to scan their passports. She said: “People were quite angry.”

The UK-wide issue was first reported by Edinburgh Airport on Thursday afternoon (April 25), according to Express. Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick, Birmingham Airport, London Luton and Stansted were among the major airports that saw long queues.

However, Liverpool Airport said Express that it has not been affected by a nationwide outage affecting eGates because it has not. There are more than 270 eGates – electronic gates that are automated – at 15 airports and Eurostar terminals across the UK.

eGates uses facial recognition technology to verify passengers’ identities against their passport photo. It is supposed to offer a faster way to cross the border, but due to a nationwide disruption, passengers faced long waits on Thursday (April 25).

Shortly after 7pm, Manchester Airport said the issue affecting the eGates had been resolved. In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the airport said: “We apologize for any inconvenience caused during this time and thank you for your patience and understanding.”

The Home Office said border security had not been affected by the disruption. In a statement on Friday (April 26), a Home Office spokesman said: “Yesterday (April 25) a technical issue affected eGates across the country. The issue was quickly identified and has now been resolved. We have thoroughly investigated the causes and will ensure that this issue does not occur again.”