Passengers could face four-hour queues at airport when amber travel rules lift

‘We are not set up to cope with that sort of demand,’ says border force union

Passengers returning to the UK could face queues of three to four hours when amber list restrictions are lifted for vaccinated travellers next week.

From 19 July, the punitive rules currently in place – including a 10-day quarantine – for all Brits entering England from destinations on the government’s extensive amber list will be scrapped for those who have been double-jabbed at least 14 days previously.

The guidance against leisure travel to amber countries is being axed the same day, while the Foreign Office has removed its own advisory against all non-essential travel to a number of amber destinations.

These changes open up much of Europe for British holidaymakers, with trips to France, Spain, Portugal and Greece possible minus the previously onerous restrictions and the risk that travellers’ insurance would be invalidated.

Foreign travel is expected to receive a sudden boost as a result – but the influx of returning passengers could cause major delays at UK airports, border force is warning, with passengers possibly waiting on planes to reduce queues.

“This decision will open up foreign travel to a large number of new travellers, but we are not set up to cope with that sort of demand,” Lucy Moreton, professional officer for the ISU immigration union, which represents border staff, told The Times.

“There is no way that the border can maintain that level of checks as the number of travellers increase. We’ve got away with it so far because the number of travellers are so low.

“But even at this point we’re seeing queues of one to two hours. From the number of bookings we’ve seen already, we’ll easily see three, four-hour queues when people start returning.”

Although travellers’ vaccination status will have already been checked by their airline prior to departure, border force must still check they have filled in their Passenger Locator Form, a prerequisite for everyone entering the UK.

This process slows down the speed at which passengers can be processed and admitted to the country.

A government spokesman said: “Our utmost priority is protecting the health of the public and our enhanced borders regime is helping reduce the risk of new variants being transmitted.

“That means, for the time being, passengers will need to accept an increase in the time taken at each stage of their journey.”