Airport border officials are being transferred to the English Channel in a bid to try and handle rising numbers of migrants reaching Britain, it has been reported.
As staff are being moved from major airports, aviation bosses fear it will create a gap in staffing creating longer queues as travellers dash on holiday.
Pictures shared on social media show spiralling queues of travellers in major airports.
Frustrated holidaymakers said they were stuck in queues for two to three hours as they arrived at Heathrow Airport from amber list countries on one of the busiest days of the year.
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(Image: STAN KUJAWA)
Today, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse apologised for delays at the borders as he suggested airline staff could be among those given isolation exemptions to relieve the “pingdemic”.
He told Times Radio on Sunday: “I know Border Force are one of the frontline services that will be able to access more of this test and release.
“And I think at Heathrow yesterday we had a technical issue with the e-gates where they went down for 90 minutes or so.
“That caused a problem and I’m very sorry about that, and I’m sorry for the people that were inconvenienced.
“Hopefully Border Force will be relieved of some of the aspects of the pingdemic.”
A senior aviation source told The Telegraph: This is the thing we are dreading the most.”
Earlier this week, the number of people who had crossed to the UK so far this year up to Tuesday had reached 8,452 which exceeded the figure for the whole of 2020 when 8,417 people had made the trip.
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These figures are based on Home Office data obtained and analysed by the PA news agency.
It has been reported that as many as 22,000 migrants could cross the Channel by the end of the year, with Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, hauling in Dan O’Mahoney, the clandestine threat commander, to warn that the numbers must be driven down.
On Tuesday, the Home Secretary announced an agreement to more than double the number of police patrolling French beaches, with the Government to give France £54 million.
Heathrow Airport said it was expecting about 128,000 passengers on Saturday and Sunday, though that is still down from pre-pandemic daily volumes of around 230,000 to 260,000 in July 2019.
