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Waiting Times At Uk Border Control Could Double After Brexit
23 - Jan - 2017

Waiting Times at UK Border Control Could Double After Brexit, Airport Bosses Warn

Image from Heathrow Airport

 

The Airport Operators Association (AOA) has cautioned that plane passengers arriving in the UK could see waiting times double after Brexit, as Border Force struggles to meet official waiting time targets.

AOA has urged the government to either maintain the same system for EU nationals after Brexit or boost airports’ capacity to meet the growing demand.

It wants EU nationals spared from more stringent passport checks as this would only make the situation worse. Already, border resources are insufficient as passenger numbers continue to rise.

Despite the increase in passenger numbers from 220.6 million in 2012 to 251.5 million in 2015, budgetary allocation for the Border Force dropped from £617 million in 2012/13 to £558.1 million in 2016/17.

Currently, EU nationals arriving in the UK take less than 25 minutes at the border for identity verification while non-EU passengers often take up to 45 minutes.

​According to Henk Van Klaveren, spokesman for the AOA, airport chiefs are concerned about the impact Brexit will have on passenger numbers, considering the fact that Border Force resources are already stretched beyond capacity.

He added:  “The Government’s target waiting time for EU nationals is 25 minutes, while for non-EU passengers it’s 45, but we are increasingly going beyond these targets. Complaint logs have gone up.

“We should be meeting the waiting time targets 95 per cent of the time, now it’s more like 50 per cent because of a real struggle for Border Force to cope.

“If we change the rights of EU citizens to come in through free movement, they will be subjected to the hard border checks, which could result in waiting times almost doubling.

“Border Force is struggling to deal with the pressure now, let alone with tens of millions more passengers going through the hard border on top of that. It would have to be invested in heavily to meet demand.”

Heathrow airport’s waiting times have been increasing in recent years. Figures from the airport show that the proportion of non-EU passengers screened within the Government’s target 45 minutes dropped from 99 per cent in 2015 to 91 per cent in 2016.

The AOA has forwarded their concerns to a House of Lords inquiry into the movement of people between the EU and UK.

By Airport Pickups London