Heathrow gets extra staff for border checks
THE GOVERNMENT has promised to bring in more staff to speed up immigration queues at Heathrow airport following complaints from businesses and passengers.
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways parent IAG, warned yesterday that “we have a crisis, it has been there for some time and we need urgent action” to put an end to “unacceptable poor standards that the border force has provided”.
After a week of lengthy delays at Heathrow put the spotlight on the hub’s ability to deal with the Olympics influx this summer, Walsh accused the government of playing down the extent of the delays.
He added that airlines “have demonstrated we are prepared to pay where we get the right service”.
Immigration minister Damien Green, while blaming the heavy rain for recent delays, said 80 additional staff would help man the gates at Heathrow from this month.
He confirmed that BAA was in talks with airlines to increase fees in order to privately fund extra border controls, but added that they had not yet approached him about the plan.
BAA, which owns the airport, welcomed “the new sense of urgency being shown by the government to tackle this problem”.
The PCS union, however, warned that the measures were a short-term “sticking plaster for a serious injury” caused by overstretched staff.
Last year, home secretary Theresa May decided to split the Border Agency in two after it emerged that some immigration checks had been relaxed in order to cut queues at Heathrow.