Edinburgh Airport passengers disrupted after 'nationwide issue’ with Border Force e-gates

A “nationwide issue” with Border Force e-gates has caused significant disruption at airports across the country – including at Edinburgh Airport.

Images and footage shared on social media on Tuesday evening appeared to show long queues forming at the gates, which scan passports, in London’s Heathrow Airport.

Edinburgh Airport confirmed passengers could face disruption due to the outage and “longer than normal” waiting times.

It posted to X at around 9.20pm: “Border Force is experiencing a nationwide technical outage affecting UK airports.

“Although not in a peak arrivals period, some passengers may experience longer than normal waits at the Border while UKBF works to fix the issue. Thank you for your patience.”

A spokesperson for Heathrow airport said: “Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue which is impacting passengers being processed through the Border.

“Our teams are supporting Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible and are on hand to provide passenger welfare.

“We apologise for any impact this is having to passenger journeys.”

A spokesperson for Stansted Airport said: “We are aware of an issue with UK Border Force’s systems across the country, affecting all UK airports.

“Our operational and customer service colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office fix the issue.”