Heathrow arrivals face six-hour queues caused by COVID checks

Heathrow arrivals face six-hour queues caused by COVID checks

Travellers arriving at Heathrow airport in London are being forced to queue for up to six hours to pass through immigration controls, according to an airport executive.

Travellers arriving at Heathrow airport in London are being forced to queue for up to six hours to pass through immigration controls, according to an airport executive.

Chief solutions officer Chris Garton has admitted “the situation is becoming untenable” and said the police have been forced to step in.

Footage filmed at Heathrow on April 14 showed huge queues of passengers who had arrived on a British Airways flight from Lahore at 6 am.

According to the filmer, Jhanzaib Sulari, he was made to wait in a small designated area for hours until finally reaching his quarantine hotel at 1130 am.

He said other passengers were still waiting at the airport when he left.

"They were checking passports, hotel bookings, passenger locator forms and COVID tests at every point," said Sulari.

"There was no coordination between the people who were managing all this," he added.