Fresh fears of airport chaos over ID scans
Pastor Dale Morgan
Fresh fears of airport chaos over ID scans*
By David Millward Transport Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:07am BST 26/06/2007
There were renewed warnings of a summer of travel chaos at British
airports yesterday as the Government insisted it would not slow the
introduction of passport scanning.
The equipment - designed to read high-tech biometric passports - has
already caused long delays at Stansted.
Lin Homer, the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency,
yesterday said the devices would be installed at all major ports by the
end of the year.
The decision has infuriated several airlines, who already face passenger
complaints over the security restrictions on outbound passengers' cabin
luggage, and fear that extra security checks will mean long delays for
incoming passengers.
But Miss Homer played down the threat and insisted that passengers would
face only a "slightly longer wait".
"We have to look at individuals and I make no apology for that," she said.
The worst difficulties have been encountered at Stansted, where some
passengers have had to wait for over an hour. Last week, Michael
O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, criticised the delays.
Within the industry, the greatest fears are the impact the new machinery
will have at Heathrow which, according to one industry source, was
already on a knife edge.
The crunch time will be early morning when long-haul flights arrive from
Asia and North America.
A spokesman for the Airport Operators Association said: "We have met the
Government and have made it clear we need more front line immigration
staff."
But Miss Homer insisted that the number of officials checking inbound
passengers has been increased.
The delays, she said, were due to a number of factors: "There has been
some bunching of flights that has meant there have been times when we
have been dealing with significantly more people than normal."
Another concern is that the delays could have a snowball effect in the
baggage halls, with bags lying uncollected on baggage carousels while
their owners are still in the immigration hall.
"Once you have a backlog anywhere at Heathrow - even on the spur road
coming in, it all falls over," an industry source said.
But Miss Homer said that technology could, in the long term, ease
delays. The 90,000 people who have enrolled in an iris recognition
system are already getting into the country more quickly, she said.