8 to 12 hour waiting time to clear Borderforce security check for returning to UK air passengers feared.

 Travel corridors are set and UK citizens can travel to a small selection of carefully selected destinations on the Green channel. Observing all applicable Covid 19 regulations and testing, departure should be longer than usual but depart you will. The problem is returning passengers, families with babies, elderly and infirm relatives, writes broadcaster and aviation expert Julian Bray.

Simply, the Government has decreed that every person arriving back in the UK must be individually screened, documents and locator forms examined, passports and visas checked and on site testing and #covid19 negative test validation completed. Those who have pre-booked and prepaid quarantine hotels also need to be escorted. As do those who fail to provide the mandatory documents, fines and any penalties completed. 

So it will not come as a surprise if arrival queues at major airports start to back up, planes - passengers still on board  - held at remote areas rather than arrival gates until such time they are free to accept laden aircraft. So this my friends is where the nightmare begins. Normally Borderforce officers at immigration desks will take just a few minutes to process an entry, examine passports, flag up 'hostiles' and examine any orther documents. 

With the current traffic light system, every individual arriving back in the UK will require a formal interview on top of all other requirements. All well and good, if all entry gates are in operation but with front facing desking only every other desk can be used.  Couple this with chronic under staffing, and irregular  availability of trained Borderforce entry officers, matters can only get worse.

In reality, the Home Office is fully aware of the situation, only admitted a few days ago that each individual module of the new arrival process will take additional time to complete. But still insisting that 100% of arrival must be processed. No short cuts or waivers.  The Borderforce 'Director General' no less will only cough to say a 10 hour delay. TEN HOUR DELAY. We are talking about at least a 10 hour delay possibly much, much longer. 14 hours has been modelled, those involved in the process, as government servants sworn to silence, but leaks do happen...

Pressed Borderforce will maintain their staffing is up to strength but in reality they are understaffed due to stressed out staff throwing 'sikkies'. In addition, there is the question of staff safety, some are saying not enough protective plastic screens are in place, and they have to be of military grade in case of 'incidents'.

The thinking was simply that social distancing by now would have been dropped and screens a thing of the past.  Clearly we are all going stir crazy and have to get away. Increasingly next year is looking far more attractive than the horrors of travel in mid panademic. If anyone asks, this isn't going away and jabs will become an annual event. Sigh.