A WOMAN was forced to find new flights after an eGate failure left her stranded at the airport – despite arriving way before her flight.
Passenger Liz Baldwin was travelling from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam back to the UK after a trip abroad.
Returning to Luton Airport, she arrived at the airport at 8:20am for her 10:45am flight – nearly 2hr30 before it was due to take off which is more than the recommended time.
Most airports advise allowing at least two hours before a short-haul flight.
However, after she checked in her bag, she ran into a number of problems at security.
Her mum Yvonne told the Telegraph: “At the entrance to security, an official barred their way saying the area was overcrowded.
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“After waiting in line for an hour, he directed them to another location which was also closed.”
She said that while passengers were eventually allowed to go through security by single-file, she had to have her passport manually checked.
However, by the time she got to her gate, it was 10:40am.
While the aircraft was still there, her bags were taken off the flight, along with 26 other passenegrs.
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Yvonne said they were forced to shell out £622 for new flights.
According to the Telegraph, the issue came after the Dutch airport’s eGates suffered a technical failure, causing the overcrowding and queues.
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, the police force in Amsterdam, confirmed at the time: “There is currently a malfunction in our systems at Schiphol, which may cause longer queues.
“We are working hard on a quick solution.”
Around 61 flights were affected, with three cancelled, according to local media.
EasyJet, who Liz was flying with, eventually refunded the entire price of the new tickets after it was confirmed that the missed flight was due to the eGate failure.
It’s not the first time an eGate failure has caused widespread chaos.
Last summer, a nationwide Border Force crash resulted in hour-long delays as Brits attempted to leave the country during the May bank holiday.
Passengers were forced to wait as long as three hours at major UK airports due to passports having to be manually checked.
It came at the same time as IT issues at the Dover border, resulting in huge queues.
A similar eGate problem happened again last September, which saw them shut down for two hours with passengers stuck in huge airport queues.
However, new facial recognition eGates are being rolled out across UK airports, which will scrap the need to show passports at the border.
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Phil Douglas, the director-general of Border Force, said AI would create an “intelligent border” that used “much more frictionless facial recognition than we currently do”.
The UK currently operates around 270 eGates, with the new technology set to be running by 2025.
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Kara Godfrey
