Quarantine chaos: five-hour airport queues predicted as new rules come into force

Heathrow has warned of quarantine chaos that could lead to passengers queueing for up to five hours and flights being suspended as the Government’s new border controls come into force on Monday.

The airport warned ministers the extra checks needed on arrivals and shortages of Border Force staff could “compromise” the safety of up to 8,000 passengers a day flying into Heathrow to quarantine either in Government-approved hotels or at home.

Border Force officials estimate the checks on whether passengers have come from one of the 33 red list countries and paid for their quarantine hotels and Covid tests could double the time taken to 15 minutes per arrival. E-gates have been shut because of the need for face-to-face checks.

Staff have already faced heavy queues in recent days after a surge in passengers arriving in efforts to avoid the 10-day enforced quarantine in hotels for which they have to pay up to £1,750 per person.

Watch: Hotel quarantine rules explained

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Our key concern remains the ability of Border Force to cope. Queues at the border in recent days of almost five hours are totally unacceptable.

“Ministers need to ensure there is adequate resource and effective processes at the border to avoid compromising the safety of passengers and those working at the airport, which could necessitate the suspension of some arriving flights.”

The row between the airports and Government over the policy has already seen ministers forced to bring in security firms G4S and Mitie to meet and help direct red list passengers to their quarantine hotels after they have been through border controls.

Border Force has also pulled in emergency teams of staff into Heathrow from other airports across the UK including Manchester, which is not one of the seven designated airports.

Heathrow is also urging the Government not to issue £4,000 fines to red list passengers who have failed to book their hotels in recognition of the technical problems that crashed the official booking website for 24 hours last week. The airport has offered facilities for them to make the bookings.

Extra police officers are also being dispatched to Heathrow by the Metropolitan police from Monday to supplement the police already stationed at the airport. They will support Border Force officers and security staff if anyone refuses to go to their quarantine hotels.

The ISU union representing border force and immigration officials had expressed concern they had no power to stop travellers running away from airport terminals to escape the quarantine rules and had been given only limited powers to detain people at the border.

However, the Department of Health and Social Care said on Sunday night that the new regulations gave Border Force and police the powers they needed to ensure people arriving in England conformed to the new rules.

It said Border Force could issue fixed penalty notices to individuals suspected of lying on their passenger locator form and where necessary detain them for up to three hours.

Watch: What you can and can't do during England's third national lockdown

Under the regulations, arrivals failing to quarantine in a designated hotel face a fine of between £5,000 and £10,000 and/or a maximum 10-year jail term if found guilty of falsifying their travel history.

The Government has previously estimated some 1,425 people a day will need to be quarantined in hotels patrolled by security guards.

The DHSC said on Sunday night it had struck deals with 16 hotels so far, providing 4,963 rooms for the new quarantine system, with a further 58,000 rooms currently on standby.