Due to a technical issue, electronic border gates across airports in the UK were closed for the majority of the day, causing significant delays for travelers on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. The Home Office, which oversees immigration and borders, reported at 6 p.m. that the gates were back online, without disclosing the cause of the malfunction. Airport operators requested patience and apologized for the delays as travelers posted images showing lengthy queues. This comes as travel operators in the UK try to restore their reputation with the public after a series of incidents last year. Electronic passport gates utilize facial recognition technology to automate the processing of travel documents; there are currently 270 such gates at UK ports, open to travelers from the UK, any EU member country, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States.