FED UP WITH AIRPORT CHAOS? JOIN THE QUEUE

I AM beginning to think the management of Gatwick airport might have something against my family. The last time we had used the airport was on Christmas Eve — when the place resembled the black hole of Calcutta after one of its two terminals suffered a complete power-failure.

The last time, that is, until five days ago, when returning from Venice we found ourselves in a monstrous and almost immobile queue at passport control.

There were no announcements to explain the reason for the gigantic bottleneck, which added to the anger and confusion of those trapped in it.

When we finally got to the passport desk and asked the Border Force employee what the reason was for the interminable wait, he said: ‘I’m told that a number of flights have been delayed.’ Or, in other words, it’s the airlines’ fault.

Except this was not true. As the Border Force admitted later that day after the media got hold of the story, there was a ‘glitch’ with its computers, which meant that every person going through passport control had to have their details entered manually.

The employee checking our passports must have known this, but (whether acting on orders or not) was prepared to dissimulate in order to avoid public anger being directed at the panicky Border Force.

As if that were not enough contempt for the public in one day, a Gatwick Express employee offering the useful service of selling tickets for the rail journey to London in the airport’s North Terminal suddenly shut up shop when there were people left in the queue.

When I asked why he was closing, he declared: ‘It’s time for me to go home.’ Given that it was barely 2pm, this seemed slightly odd.

But then it became clear why the Gatwick Express employee was anxious to be off: the RMT union had mounted a strike, so it would take him much longer to get home. As it would for the rest of us.

All this is manageable for those who live here: we have got used to these deliberately imposed obstacles to travel, and know how to find our way around them.

But imagine what an unpleasant impression it all makes upon foreign visitors, particularly those travelling with children. It is a national embarrassment, no less.