Immigration servers fail at Abu Dhabi airport

Officers spent several hours entering passport information by hand, officials said, but few delays reported.

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ABU DHABI // Immigration Department servers at Abu Dhabi International Airport were inoperative for several hours this morning, and officials have been processing passports by hand.

Officials said there would be little noticeable delays to passengers and the problem was fixed in a matter of hours, with the system functioning normally just after noon.

However, Mohammed Tamim, 30, from the Palestinian Territories, a deputy executive manager at an oil company, said he was unable to use the e-gate mid-morning.

"I wanted to check in; they said there is no e-gate, it is not working because the system is down," he said.

Customer service agents eventually asked Mr Tamim for his e-gate number and told him they would call him when the problem was fixed.

"This is illogical, of course, because then I'll miss my flight," Mr Tamim said. "So I just took the manual way with my friends," he added.

Dubai reported no problems with the system at its airports.

"I haven't heard of this problem," said Lt Col Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, Assistant Director General for Electronic Services at the Residency and Foreigners Affairs Department in Dubai. "It's working perfectly in Dubai. Both the immigration and e-gate services are working fine."

hdajani@thenational.ae