Covid: Heathrow proposes linking COVID-19 documents to passports

Border Force has plans to reduce airport queues by digitally linking travellers’ COVID-19 documents to their passports by mid-summer.

Chris Garton, chief solutions officer at Heathrow Airport, has stated that the six-hour-long queues were already problematic. The situation is bound to get more serious when non-essential international travel resumes from 17 May.

Overseas travel is currently banned under the UK’s current lockdown rules except when travellers have ‘reasonable excuses’. Unless new rules are introduced, the foreign travel ban will lift on 17 May.

Passengers arriving in the UK from overseas are required to produce evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result. Additionally, they are required to provide a filled-out passenger locator form that will include their quarantine location as well as Day 2 and Day 8 tests booking reference number.

As part of Home Office requirements, Border Force staff must verify that each passenger has the correct COVID-19 paperwork in addition to the regular travel documents. Resultantly, there are immense delays.

According to a Home Office spokesperson: ‘We are in a global health pandemic, and people should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary.

‘To protect the public and our vaccine rollout from new variants, Border Force is checking that every passenger has complied with current health measures when arriving at the border. Passengers should currently expect queues and wait times to be longer than normal.

‘Queues and wait times will be longer if passengers have not completed the necessary requirements to enter the UK, and airlines are responsible for making sure that their passengers have completed all the necessary requirements.’

The proposed plan intends to link passengers’ COVID-19 paperwork to their passports via a dedicated database, which could reduce several hours’ queuing. Passengers would scan their passports at an e-gate and have the passenger locator forms checked and verified online.

However, the trouble remains that thousands of arrivals turn up with unfinished passenger locator forms and without any post-arrival Day 2 and Day 8 tests booked. This, despite the threat of a hefty fine of up to £2000. 

The government has been urged by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to hasten efforts to digitize the current paper system.

In a press release, the IATA stated: ‘When international travel ramps up from 17 May, it’s critical that passengers are not left queuing for hours for the manual checking of vaccine and testing certificates.’

The statement went on to further add: ‘As part of the report of the Global Travel Task Force, the UK Government has outlined its intention to work with industry on digital systems, such as IATA Travel Pass, to manage testing and vaccination documentation, which we welcome. But there is a lot of work to do between now and 17 May.’ 

When foreign travel resumes from 17 May, the government will adopt a ‘traffic light’ travel system. A system of categorizing travel destinations according to their COVID-19 risk factors backed by data evidence. 

‘Green countries’ will represent relatively less risk, ‘amber countries’ will be the riskier group, and ‘red countries’ to be ones with the highest risk factor. Re-entry to the UK from each group of countries will have different testing and quarantine requirements.  

Take a look at our Travel Advice Section for the current news on various country’s infection rates and their travel popularity.