Airline passenger news and views

Passengers who had been warned of lengthy delays at Heathrow due to striking workers today said border controls were 'better than usual'.

As Border Agency bosses were forced to take on regular airport workers to man passport control, delighted passengers said queues had been shorter than normal.

Airport chiefs had even laid on free food and water, expecting passengers to be delayed by hours.

Airport bosses yesterday warned passengers to be prepared for lengthy queues as they arrived in the country.

Critics feared that the Border Agency walkout would lead to holes in the nation's security and terrorists and criminals could sneak into the country unnoticed. So far this morning no problems have been reported and airport staff said queues were at 'normal levels'.

Drafted in staff were believed to have had limited training on how to operate the airport's database containing information on terrorists and criminals.

Border staff are among up to two million public sector workers believed to have walked out of their jobs in protest over pension reforms.

At Heathrow and Gatwick this morning planes arriving and taking-off at  have been largely unaffected.There were just a handful of cancellations of inbound transatlantic flights to Heathrow earlier.

In Gatwick, the UK's second busiest airport in West Sussex - the first 22 inbound flights arrived as normal, with departures also running smoothly.

It is not yet known how many airport staff have walked out but a British Airways spokesman said there were reports around two-thirds of UKBA staff were working.

The airport's 10 EU UK desks at Terminal 3 immigration are being manned by mix of home office staff and police officers who have been trained, the BBC said.

A British Airways spokesman said: 'We have had a positive start to the day and queues are pretty much as normal.'

A BAA spokesman said: 'Due to the effective contingency plans we have put in place with the airlines and the UKBA over recent days, immigration queues are currently at normal levels. However, there still remains a possibility of delays for arriving passengers later in the day.

A spokesman for Gatwick said the airport was expecting delays today for incoming passengers through passport control, but no hold ups had occurred yet this morning.

Be the first to comment on this.