SINGAPORE – Travellers were delayed at land and air checkpoints due to a disruption to the immigration clearance system that lasted for more than five hours on Friday.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said the disruption took place at about 10.40am and was due to a technical glitch during a scheduled system upgrade, which caused an “unanticipated system overload”.
At 3.58pm, ICA said immigration clearance at all checkpoints had returned to normal.
Earlier at 2.03pm, ICA said travellers at Changi Airport were being redirected to manned counters for immigration clearance, as all automated departure lanes in all four airport terminals were affected by the disruption.
The automated lanes at Terminals 2 and 4 for arriving travellers were also affected, as well as some automated lanes for bus passengers and all the automated lanes for motorcyclists at Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints.
However, there was no disruption to immigration clearance at coastal checkpoints.
In a statement later on Friday, ICA said: “Off-duty officers were immediately recalled, and these additional resources were deployed to man all the manual immigration counters and perform crowd control.”
ICA added that travellers at checkpoints were redirected to manual counters and needed to factor in more time for immigration clearance.
ICA said it is conducting a thorough investigation, and will adopt additional safeguards to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
It said: “ICA apologises for the inconvenience caused, and would like to thank travellers for their understanding, patience and cooperation with our officers on the ground.”
Travellers began forming long queues at the land and air border checkpoints in the late morning when the glitch first struck.
On Facebook and Twitter at about 12.30pm, Changi Airport said “passengers should expect delays and approach our ground staff if assistance is needed”.
A Changi Airport Group (CAG) spokesman said airport staff were rendering assistance to passengers at the terminals and giving priority to those with imminent flights.
In an earlier update at 12.03pm, ICA advised travellers to postpone all non-essential travel.
Motorists entering Singapore through the land checkpoints before noon expressed their unhappiness in online posts, saying they were left waiting in the queue with no reprieve in sight.
In a Facebook group for Malaysians who work in Singapore, several people posted photos of long lines of vehicles on the Causeway, and of people in the immigration hall.
At Woodlands Checkpoint, a traveller who wanted to be known only as Ms Misha said she could see that all the automated lanes were down. The Malaysian, who works as a customer service officer, said it took her about half an hour to clear immigration checks on the Singapore side before entering the country.
At Changi Airport, throngs of people waited to enter departure gates.
When The Straits Times visited the airport just after 12pm, there was a huge crowd at the departure area at Terminal 3 just before the automated clearance gates. Announcements could be heard through the public address system apologising for the delays.
Two queues – each about 50m long – leading up to the departure area had formed as well.
However, there were no queues seen at Terminals 1, 2 and 4.
Mr Steven Chen, 49, who works in the IT industry, was with his friends at the airport on Friday morning to see a friend off.
He said they had just finished their meal at an eatery at Terminal 3 at around 11am when they heard the announcement over the PA system about the system issues.
Their friend, who was flying with a two-year-old child, took about an hour to get into the departure area despite being given priority.
He said: “They started queueing at about 11.45am, and reached the front of the queue only at about 12.30pm. It took them another 10 to 15 minutes to clear the automated gates.”
Meanwhile, Ms Margaret Page, 58, said she had a much smoother experience while in the queue.
It had taken all of about 15 minutes for the Canadian to pass through the departure gate after she first started queueing.
“This is my second time in Singapore but, the last time I was here, things weren’t like this.
“Technical issues do happen now and again, and I think it was quite thoughtful of the airport staff to give those of us in the queue a bottle of water,” she added.
CAG said on Friday afternoon that a small number of passengers missed their flights, and it had assisted these passengers with rebooking their flights and other arrangements.
“Changi Airport managed queues during the disruption and provided drinks and biscuits. We regret the inconvenience caused and thank our passengers for their patience and understanding,” its statement added.
- Additional reporting by Jefferson Lin Zi Xuan, Judd Siow Rui Bin and Josiah Teo