Heathrow CEO Wants to Give Americans Access to E-Gates
Sharon Hsu July 24, 2018
As Heathrow Airport (LHR) sees a record-breaking number of passengers flying through this year, with over 38.1 million travelers in the first half of 2018, it is also experiencing increased congestion in passport control lines. CEO John Holland-Kaye is urging the Home Office to change rules and allow U.S. and Commonwealth passengers through the airport’s e-gates.
Recently, it took non-EU passengers nearly three hours to go through border security in one of Heathrow Airport’s terminals. The airport also has an ambitious expansion plan underway, including the construction of a third runway, making the question of congestion even more urgent. Heathrow’s CEO, John Holland-Kaye, says current wait times at passport control are already extreme and intolerable.
His solution? Allow American passengers and travelers from other “low-risk” countries to use the electronic-passport gates currently available for European Economic Area and Swiss passengers. These gates are automated to match a chip found in travelers’ biometric passports to a facial recognition scan, a process that can occur in seconds.
Holland-Kaye tells the Guardian, “We have 60 e-gates at Heathrow and you’ll never see them all in use … If the Americans aren’t considered safe then no one is – they’re at least as safe as our European partners.”
He is asking the UK’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid to make a rules change, suggesting that the move could be accomplished as part of talks ahead of Brexit. Vetted passengers from Canada and Australia would also be included in the new group allowed to use the e-passport gates. Seeming to address Javid directly, Holland-Kaye says to the Guardian, “You know who is coming to your country, why do we need to treat everyone like a criminal when they get to the border?”
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Bring it on. I've been to London twice so far this year and the first time I couldn't believe I waited just over an hour to get through the border security. Then in May I waited in line for two hours. It was extremely hot and they brought in pallets of bottled water to hand out to swooning travelers, but I didn't want to drink any and risk having to jump out of the line to pee. It was a ridiculous situation. At least they pulled families with young children out to jump to the head of the line. I can't imagine what small hell that would be after a long flight.
Shortdog, Registered traveller means you have to apply and be accepted. This article was is about allowing access to egates without pre-registering.
BA isn't concerned about Americans waiting in line, the LHR CEO is. The article says nothing about BA being concerned.
If the US granted us usage of the Global Entry Gates for free in return, then it sounds like a fair deal...
Not being funny, but considering the US literally charges UK citizens to get into the US, but Americans get into the UK free of charge, I think it would be unfair for Heathrow to allow US citizens such access. Or, if they do, the US should reciprocate such access. But we all know that ain't gonna happen.