The boss of Heathrow Airport has blamed the British government's Border Force for lengthy airport queues and said more agents are needed to deal with passenger demand.
John Holland-Kaye, the airport's chief executive, said the UK Border Force is “a world class service” and that e-gates which allow international passengers to be processed efficiently are “fantastic when they work".
However, he said the agency “struggled to cope” with an influx of passengers during the busy summer months, leading to hours-long queues for some arrivals required to give evidence of a negative Covid test.
Speaking at the Transport Committee in parliament, Mr Holland-Kaye said: “The challenges I see with Border Forces is when we have peaks. When we have things that require a lot of manual intervention, that's when they really struggle to cope.
“And that's exactly what we saw two weeks ago at the end of the summer holidays when a lot of families were coming back.
“We couldn't use the e-gates and there simply weren't enough people on the desk to support them. There were e-gates that had broken down with no engineer to fix them.”
He described the situation as “entirely fixable” and urged the Border Force and Home Office to anticipate where the demand would be and to plan resources accordingly.
Staff members must be at the desk before the queue builds “because if that happens, the queue never really gets going”, he added.
During the hearing, airline bosses also urged the government to come in line with some European rules and ditch testing entirely for double-vaccinated passengers.
The government announced last week that fully vaccinated travellers arriving in England would no longer need to take a pre-departure test from Monday, and the post-arrival day-two test can be a cheaper lateral flow one, rather than a PCR test, from the end of October.
UK travel - in pictures
EasyJet's chief commercial officer Sophie Dekkers said the airline was “surprised and delighted” by the change in policy, but said it was made too late.
“October half-term is probably the only big opportunity for people [to go on holiday] in the near term, so although we saw a good uplift in trading and sales over the weekend, we’ve missed the boat unfortunately with the summer holidays.”
Ms Dekkers urged the government to go further and scrap the day-two test as “the UK is lagging behind Europe” and “nowhere else in Europe do they have testing like this”.
She went on: “If we really want to be competitive we need to be on a level playing field, we need to accept that we have very high vaccination rates, as does most of the rest of Europe now.
“The risk is very low and we need to just remove this last hurdle.”
She said “it doesn’t make sense” that testing requirements were tougher this summer than in 2020 despite the progress on vaccinations.
Mr Holland-Kaye told the hearing that the easing of travel rules was “a step in the right direction” but called for a return to “frictionless travel”.
He said: “We’re going to have to live with Covid. We all recognise that. Vaccination is our way through this, and if you’ve been double-vaccinated you would expect that you can get back to travel as normal without all the testing and the forms you have to fill in.”
He added: “We are in a fight for the economic future of this country.
“We’re not going to win that fight if we’re always playing catch-up with the Europeans.
“None of the major markets in Europe have any kind of testing, very few of them have any countries on their red list, and we are still in catch-up mode.
“If we want to win we’ve got to get ahead and be far more progressive about opening up and being a welcoming, liberal, open trading nation.”
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
THE%20FLASH
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More coverage from the Future Forum
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
The years Ramadan fell in May
info-box
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Happy Tenant
Started: January 2019
Co-founders: Joe Moufarrej and Umar Rana
Based: Dubai
Sector: Technology, real-estate
Initial investment: Dh2.5 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 4,000
Generation Start-up: Awok company profile
Started: 2013
Founder: Ulugbek Yuldashev
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 600 plus
Stage: still in talks with VCs
Principal Investors: self-financed by founder
Read more about the coronavirus
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five pillars of Islam
Zayed Sustainability Prize
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Sweet%20Tooth
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m
Winner: Arjan, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Jap Nazaa, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi.
6pm: Al Ruwais Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 1,200m
Winner: RB Lam Tara, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinal.
6.30pm: Shadwell Gold Cup Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Sanad, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
7pm: Shadwell Farm Stallions Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Canal, Harry Bentley, Satish Seemar.
The years Ramadan fell in May
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
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Top 5 concerns globally:
1. Unemployment
2. Spread of infectious diseases
3. Fiscal crises
4. Cyber attacks
5. Profound social instability
Top 5 concerns in the Mena region
1. Energy price shock
2. Fiscal crises
3. Spread of infectious diseases
4. Unmanageable inflation
5. Cyber attacks
Source: World Economic Foundation
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Fifa Club World Cup:
When: December 6-16
Where: Games to take place at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi and Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain
Defending champions: Real Madrid
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 380hp at 5,800rpm
Torque: 530Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Price: From Dh299,000 ($81,415)
On sale: Now
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
