BA boss slams Heathrow ‘border farce’
British Airways boss Alex Cruz has called for urgent action over long queues at London Heathrow.
Calling it a ‘border farce’, the chairman and CEO said it was fast becoming the norm for arriving passengers to suffer two-hour waits to get through border control.
In a letter to the Times, he said queues at Heathrow are ‘significantly worse’ than at other airport hubs worldwide.
His letter was written after proposals were muted by the government for UK-only lines after Brexit.
The Home Office said in the first six months of this year more than 95% of people arriving at Heathrow passed border control within the agreed time limits, which are 25 minutes for EEA (European Economic Area) nationals and 45 minutes for those coming in from elsewhere.
But Cruz said the target was missed 8,298 times last year and the number had already reached more than 6,000 for 2018.
"This is unacceptable," he said. "What kind of message does this send as we try to build links outside the EU? We need more than UK-only lanes to show Britain is open for business, and that includes Sajid Javid taking immediate action to address this border farce once and for all."
A Home Office spokeswoman told the BBC: "We understand the frustration for those who have experienced longer waits and remain fully committed to working with our partners to reduce waiting times as far as is possible.
"At the same time, we will not compromise the essential checks we carry out at the border which keep our country safe.
"We are making sure Border Force has the resources it needs and are deploying 200 additional staff at Heathrow over the summer."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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