EU border delays ‘not bearable’ over summer, warns airport boss
The boss of Berlin Airport said non-EU citizens arriving in the German capital were forced to wait in queues for up to two hours under the new digital border system and warned that the situation was “not bearable during the summer”.
Aletta von Massenbach told the BBC that wait times at a terminal in Berlin, where Ryanair and Wizz Air operate, could range from “one hour to two hours”.
Under the EU’s new Entry-Exit System (EES), travelers from outside the bloc are required to register their biometric information when entering most European countries, which are checked when leaving.
Airports and airlines say the system is not working. The European Commission (EC) has announced its willingness to offer further support.
The EES aims to modernize the EU’s border control system, making it safer and ultimately making travel smoother.
It has been fully operational since April.
While the system works well in some places, there are regular reports of long waits at passport control, especially during peak hours.
Some passengers say they missed their flights home because they were kept in line.
Von Massenbach said one problem is that EU countries use different systems.
“There are many subsystems for each member state,” he told the BBC’s Today programme. “We find that complexity doesn’t really support smooth processing at the border.”
Technology issues prevented EES from being used in the UK at the Port of Dover, where French border checks are carried out.
A new processing area has 84 kiosks to record fingerprints and photos, but they are not currently in use because the kiosk technology (the responsibility of the French authorities) cannot be activated.
Doug Bannister, general manager of the Port of Dover, told lawmakers Thursday that “time is quickly running out” to fix the problem.
“We are rapidly heading towards the start of the critical summer period and we are yet to receive the assurances we need to avoid what could potentially be a very challenging six weeks,” he said.
