Tens of thousands of motorists and coach passengers heading to mainland Europe were held at the Port of Dover on Saturday after an information-technology failure on the French side of the frontier brought passport processing to a crawl.
The outage began shortly before the 06:00 rush-hour peak, just as Britain’s busiest holiday travel weekend of the year got under way. Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister said French Police aux Frontières staff were forced to switch to manual checks, reducing vehicle throughput by more than half. By mid-morning, live traffic cameras showed tailbacks stretching along the A20 and A2 approach roads, with port officials reporting waiting times of “up to 60 minutes” in the buffer zone.
Operators P&O Ferries and DFDS kept vessels turning around on schedule, but check-in lanes were throttled because drivers could not clear French border control. Travellers were urged not to arrive more than two hours before sailing, to remain on main roads to avoid clogging local streets, and to keep booking references handy so staff could re-book them on later departures if connections were missed.
![French border IT outage triggers hour-long queues for Dover ferries at start of UK’s Christmas getaway]()
Amid such uncertainty, travellers scrambling for alternative crossings or last-minute documentation can turn to VisaHQ for rapid assistance. The company’s United Kingdom platform (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) provides real-time visa guidance, document couriering and dedicated corporate dashboards, enabling both holiday-makers and mobility managers to adapt plans quickly when border systems hit unexpected snags.
The disruption coincided with an RAC forecast of 37.5 million leisure car journeys between Wednesday and Christmas Eve, the heaviest festive traffic since records began. Hauliers carrying just-in-time consignments warned of knock-on delays to cross-Channel supply chains. While contingency plans such as Operation TAP (traffic-access protocol) kept freight flowing, logistics firms said IT resilience on both sides of the Channel must improve before the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) goes live in 2026.
For corporate mobility managers the incident is a reminder that ferry routes—often chosen to avoid Heathrow flight disruption—are equally vulnerable to external system failures. Companies with staff assignments in continental Europe were advised to review travel insurance, allow greater buffers between arrival and client meetings, and register employees for real-time alerts from the Port of Dover and ferry operators.
The outage began shortly before the 06:00 rush-hour peak, just as Britain’s busiest holiday travel weekend of the year got under way. Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister said French Police aux Frontières staff were forced to switch to manual checks, reducing vehicle throughput by more than half. By mid-morning, live traffic cameras showed tailbacks stretching along the A20 and A2 approach roads, with port officials reporting waiting times of “up to 60 minutes” in the buffer zone.
Operators P&O Ferries and DFDS kept vessels turning around on schedule, but check-in lanes were throttled because drivers could not clear French border control. Travellers were urged not to arrive more than two hours before sailing, to remain on main roads to avoid clogging local streets, and to keep booking references handy so staff could re-book them on later departures if connections were missed.
Amid such uncertainty, travellers scrambling for alternative crossings or last-minute documentation can turn to VisaHQ for rapid assistance. The company’s United Kingdom platform (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) provides real-time visa guidance, document couriering and dedicated corporate dashboards, enabling both holiday-makers and mobility managers to adapt plans quickly when border systems hit unexpected snags.
The disruption coincided with an RAC forecast of 37.5 million leisure car journeys between Wednesday and Christmas Eve, the heaviest festive traffic since records began. Hauliers carrying just-in-time consignments warned of knock-on delays to cross-Channel supply chains. While contingency plans such as Operation TAP (traffic-access protocol) kept freight flowing, logistics firms said IT resilience on both sides of the Channel must improve before the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) goes live in 2026.
For corporate mobility managers the incident is a reminder that ferry routes—often chosen to avoid Heathrow flight disruption—are equally vulnerable to external system failures. Companies with staff assignments in continental Europe were advised to review travel insurance, allow greater buffers between arrival and client meetings, and register employees for real-time alerts from the Port of Dover and ferry operators.
