Travel industry fears summer disruption amid new biometric checks at European borders | Air transport
Travel industry leaders have called on the European Commission to tell all border authorities to withdraw the new entry-exit system (EES) if necessary, as fears of summer disruption grow.
European airports have warned of a potentially “catastrophic” experience for passengers and huge queues if new biometric checks on foreign visitors are not relaxed.
Most British holidaymakers traveling to Europe will need to be fingerprinted, photographed and registered, and firms in the UK have reported wide variation in how the rules are enforced since the scheme was soft-launched in October.
Despite provisions for border officers to relax conditions, this surprising start has already resulted in long queues at some European airports. Currently, states only require a minimum of 35% of passengers to be registered, but in theory all passengers should complete EES registration starting April 10.
To avoid significant disruptions and large queues, border authorities are allowed to reduce the number or scope of checks or even shut down the system.
EES infrastructure was up and running at many border crossings in the UK territory, including the Eurotunnel in Folkestone and Eurostar’s London St Pancras International station, long before the launch last October.
However, most visitors to the 29 countries that have implemented EES will likely have their information recorded at border control when landing at airports. Trade body Airports Council International (ACI) said the system caused delays of up to three hours, with airports in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy among the worst affected.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, said: “Chronic understaffing of border control officers has been a problem before and the introduction of the EES makes the situation worse. We routinely see only 35% of people arriving in Schengen being registered and queues of up to two hours forming. This is not sustainable and we fear the situation will worsen further.”
“We are particularly concerned about the months of July and August, when traffic doubles. We could see queues of up to five hours and this makes us very nervous: It creates a disastrous passenger experience and safety hazard, as well as potential missed connecting flights.”
UK travel association Abta has called on the EU to ensure that all member states and border authorities tell staff on the ground to use emergency measures to avoid long delays at passport control.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer wrote to EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner, asking him to keep the system under review and to push for additional border guards at peak times.
Tanzer said: “The ambition of a project like EES means it will never go completely smoothly, and we were prepared for that. But the frustrating thing is that border authorities have the power to ease queues and deal with problems as they arise – but this doesn’t seem to happen everywhere.”
Last week, a commission spokesman said the emergency measures would be in place for at least 90 days from the April deadline, hinting that a further six-week extension to cover the summer months might be possible.
Jankovec said airports “have not received official notification that the authority to suspend EES will be extended or the necessary conditions.”
He said queues at Lisbon airport reached seven hours just before the new year, prompting Portuguese authorities to suspend the system. While many self-service kiosks for EES did not work reliably, no state bar association in Sweden allowed the use of an app that allowed passengers to pre-register details.
Jankovec added: “We can do a band-aid for the summer, but we need all this to be addressed under a coordinated European approach.”
In the UK, Eurotunnel said the phased rollout of EES for bus passengers and lorry drivers had started smoothly and was “fully ready”, but it had not yet started registration of tourist vehicles and was awaiting a date from French authorities.
Eurostar, which has invested heavily in new kiosks in St Pancras, has not yet opened them. It said EES checks are completed manually by border officials and will initiate kiosk-based processing once the software and dates are determined by the French interior ministry.
