Arrive three hours early for flights to beat post-Brexit visa queues, travellers warned
As post-Brexit EU border controls continue to cause long queues, the boss of a UK budget airline has warned that Britons abroad should arrive at European airports three hours before their flights home.
Wizz Air UK general manager Yvonne Moynihan said long delays at passport control due to the new Entry and Exit System (EES) were causing some passengers to miss their return or connecting flights.
Travelers from outside the European Union are required to register their biometric information when entering the Schengen Area, which consists of 29 European countries, the majority of which are in the EU.
More than 44.5 million entries and exits have been recorded since its launch in October. More than 24,000 people have been refused entry, according to the EU commission, and more than 600 of them are considered to pose a security threat to the Union.
Ms Moynihan told the BBC that while there was some “seamless travel”, the impact of the new checks was “fragmented across Europe”, with long queues in the “usual hotspots of Spain, Portugal, France”.
Wizz Air advises passengers to prepare for long waits.
“There may be queues when you land at your destination airport, so you should bring a portable charger or water with you,” he said.
The travel boss added that there was a risk of queuing when flying back to the UK as EES details had to be verified on departure.
While people are usually advised to get to the airport two hours before their flight, “under these circumstances, we recommend three hours,” he said.
“Because there is another passport control… we are again seeing people experiencing longer wait times than expected.”
He said border authorities proactively suspend EES checks in case of long waits.
Greece had already suspended biometric checks at its borders for British citizens to avoid disruptions at airports during the summer months.
French authorities suspended extra EU border checks over the bank holiday weekend to ease waits after holidaymakers were seen facing hour-long queues when crossing the Port of Dover on Saturday.
Late on Saturday afternoon, the port said traffic was “flowing freely” on “the busiest day of the May half term weekend”.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of the European Region of Airports Council International, and Ourania Georgoutsakou, director general of European Airlines, issued a joint statement calling on the European Commission and member states to suspend EES in whole or in part “where operationally necessary” this summer.
“The combination of full registration requirements and reduced operational flexibility is expected to place unprecedented pressure on border control operations,” the statement said.
A European Commission spokesman said the body was “aware of the concerns expressed” and was “engaging constructively with the industry”.
“With the system working well, it only takes 70 seconds to register an entry or exit.”
