MPs to grill Home Secretary over Heathrow fiasco
Home Secretary Theresa May has agreed to an urgent meeting with UK airlines following fears that airports will reach gridlock this summer because of staff shortages.
May will also face a grilling by MPs today about what went wrong at Heathrow earlier this month when arriving passengers were forced to queue at passport control for more than two hours at Terminal 5, home to British Airways.
Meanwhile, Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA parent IAG has slammed government policy, claiming that long immigration queues at Heathrow was one of the reason businesses were relocating outside the UK.
In his speech to mark the opening of a new business school at Kingston University, Walsh said: " had dinner recently with a businessman who controls a 70 billion dollar investment fund and he stood for more than two hours in a queue to get into Heathrow, and he said to me ‘I am not investing in this country if that’s what I am going to face every time I come here’."
According to a report in the Financial Times, the British Air Transport Association (BATA) is afraid depleted Borer Force staffing will lead to chaos at airports during peak travel times such as the Olympic Games, when 500,000 passengers are due to fly to arrive in the UK.
BATA chief executive Simon Buck requested a meeting with May in a letter to the home secretary last month, in which the Association called for increased Border Force staffing.
He told the Financial Times: "Britain will be on show to the rest of the world this summer during … the Olympic Games. We want to see the Border Force properly resourced so it can provide robust border security – but also make sure passengers are not unduly delayed on arrival at airports."
Rather than increasing Border Force staffing levels, the Home Office is axing about 1,500 jobs, equivalent to 18% of the workforce, by 2015.
Chairman of the government’s home affairs committee Keith Vaz, which will question May later today, told the FT: "These [queues] are a very serious issue. This isn’t just about the Olympics, it’s a wider problem."
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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