'Packed like sardines': Passengers slam 'chaos' at Heathrow Airport as queues spark social distancing fears

The lengthy queues at Heathrow in recent days have sparked social distancing concerns
@NobleF1/Twitter
Ewan Somerville23 July 2020

Furious passengers have complained they were “packed in like sardines” in "shambolic" queues at Heathrow Airport, sparking growing fears over social distancing.

Travellers lashed out at “disgraceful” lengthy queues in terminals causing “chaos”, and claimed some groups were failing to wear face masks.

Bosses at Britain’s biggest airport have faced a stream of complaints over the past week, raising concerns the swelling passenger numbers could prompt a surge in coronavirus infections.

This weekend is expected to be especially busy at the airport, now the schools have broken up and with Brits eager to make use of the "air bridges" scheme.

PhD student Chris Sarnowski tweeted a picture of a packed queue at Heathrow on Wednesday, adding: “At @HeathrowAirport now. Plenty of capacity in the passport queue.

Passengers condemned the large queues at Heathrow this week
@NobleF1/Twitter

“Could have used every other row. But no, packed like sardines. This is why Britain can't be trusted to use "common sense" against Covid-19.”

Another Twitter user posed on Thursday morning: “Heathrow is a zoo. No social distancing. Why aren’t there 2m floor markings and proper queue managers ensuring passengers stay apart?”

There were further queues at Heathrow on Wednesday
@chrissarnowski/Twitter

Journalist Jon Noble pictured huge queues at customs in Heathrow's Terminal 5. "It was a pretty shocking lack of effort from Heathrow in sorting out their queuing system," he told the Standard.

“Three weeks on the road seeing all the brilliant efforts F1 did to stay safe. Then arrive home to this," he added. "Looks like [Heathrow] has made zero effort for social distancing. What a disgrace.”

A video, filmed on Sunday, showed a large group of people stuck in a lengthy queue at Terminal 2. "Terminal Two entry has no social distancing,” the man filming the video said.

"There are long queues with people bumping into each other, no system in place and no staff managing this. It is chaos with people coming out the elevators and zero instruction ''

Others also criticised people not wearing face coverings inside terminals, despite Heathrow rules stating they are mandatory. “Checking in at Heathrow T2. Signs everywhere clearly saying you must wear a face mask,” journalist Ali Azrouzi tweeted.

“Nonetheless a small bunch of people don’t wear one and no airport/airline officials or police are asking them to, even some of the airport staff are not wearing one.”

Heathrow Airport blamed the queues on passengers arriving too early for flights. A spokesperson said: “We are aware that some passengers are arriving several hours in advance of their flights which is not necessary and is causing some congestion issues.

“To prevent this, passengers are advised to arrive no earlier than 2 hours before a short-haul flight and 3 hours for long-haul journeys.

"Our teams are on hand to support where possible, but we recognise that there are points in the journey where social distancing is not always possible.

“That is why face coverings are mandatory in terminals, as they help to reduce the risk of transmission at the airport.”

It comes amid concerns that some destinations currently on the UK’s so-called air bridges list - allowing holidaymakers to avoid self-isolate on their return - are rapidly becoming fresh virus hotspots.

Spain has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, leading to some lockdown restrictions being reimposed in parts of the country. New cases jumped by nearly 4,600 on Monday, the highest since April.

Ministers are understood to be considering regional “air bridges” to avoid whole nations being wiped off the list if they suffer local outbreaks. Portugal and Maldives could soon reportedly be opened to quarantine-free travel.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in