Published on : Tuesday, August 14, 2018
For 95 per cent of visitors out of the European Economic Area as per the figures the force missed its target of 45-minute wait or less on most of the days.
In response Virgin is calling for urgent action to reduce the waiting times and extend the welcome visitors deserve.
In 2018, the Royal Wedding and the favorable exchange rate contributed majorly to the increase in international visit. The airlines agreed that under sourced border force led to an excessively long queues at immigration.
July 6th saw the longest queue time and non-EEA visitors spent around two hours 36 minutes waiting in immigration queues.
Craig Kreeger, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic mentioned that queues at the border control imply thousands of visitors had to face two-hour queues to get their passport checked. They were frustrated before they started their trip.
He further mentioned that they agree that security and safety at the airports is vital and remain a priority, however other countries have managed their borders more effectively.
It is important for the border force to provide a good first impression for every visitors each time as its high time for UK to show that the world is open for business.
There will 200 extra staff deployed at Heathrow to combat queues the government confirmed.
Tags: Craig Kreeger, Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic