HURRAH! We’re about to wave goodbye to those painfully long waits at London Heathrow’s immigration thanks to news just in that Australians will soon be able to use e-gates at the UK border.
The most excellent news came while Chancellor to the Exchequer Philip Hammond was delivering the UK’s budget.
“We’ll open the use of ePassport gates at Heathrow and other airports, currently only available to EEA nationals, to include visitors from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.”
Chancellor to the Exchequer Philip Hammond
The Australian High Commission in the UK tweeted this morning that Australian High Commissioner to the UK George Brandis “warmly welcomed” the announcement.
“We’ve been working towards this for some time so it is great to see it announced,” he commented.
Our 🇦🇺 High Commissioner George Brandis warmly welcomes the #Budget2018 announcement by @hmtreasury @PhilipHammondUK that Aussie passport holders will soon be able to use UK ePassport gates – we've been working towards this for some time so it is great to see it announced. ✈️ pic.twitter.com/o6Ivj5dfct
— Australia House (@AusHouseLondon) October 29, 2018
According to The Mirror, the policy was decided upon after data obtained by airline Virgin Atlantic showed that UK Border Force only achieved its Heathrow Airport target of processing 95% of passengers from outside the EAA within 45 minutes on just one day in July. OUCH.
The longest delays happened on July 6, when non-EEA visitors spent up to two hours and 36 minutes waiting in immigration queues. Aint nobody got time for that, right?
Aussies will be free to use the e-gates from 2019. BRILLIANT. Now go and spread the good news to all your clients.
- READ: Biometric entry into Australia for US citizens given the all-clear
- READ: Australians could soon travel passport-free
