The time it takes Britons to clear passport control has tripled at some European airports since the introduction of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), it has emerged.
The new system requires non-EU travellers to provide fingerprints and a facial image at EU borders, leading to longer queues.
Since its launch on April 10, the system has caused lengthy queues at border control, with some passengers even missing flights.
Ivan Bassato, Rome Fiumicino Airport’s chief aviation officer, told BBC News: ‘We are not at the point where you have the same quality of the process [as] before the EES.
‘I think that we need to fix urgently certain aspects of the system.’
He explained waiting times have tripled, with the time taken for UK nationals to get through the border rising from seven minutes to 20 minutes.
Travellers visiting Rome or other European hotspots from the UK shared their airport experiences with the BBC.
Yorkshireman Carl said in Rome: ‘It was two hours queuing, from getting off the plane to getting through with children. I knew it was going to be bad, but not as bad as that.’
Superintendent Pedro Oliveira, who is in charge of border control at Faro Airport in Portugal, said: ‘Sometimes what used to be a 10-minute queue… takes over 30 minutes.’
It comes after Ryanair warned millions of UK families travelling to Europe this summer to prepare for lengthy passport queues.
With schools now breaking for summer and passenger volumes reaching peak levels, the situation is going to cause unnecessary delays and long queues for UK families, the airline said.
Ryanair has identified a number of recurring EES hotspots where passengers are experiencing significant delays due to slow processing times and excessive passport control queues on both arrivals and departures.
These include Lisbon, Tenerife South, Madrid, Lanzarote, Alicante, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Milan Malpensa, Verona, Paris Beauvais, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt Hahn, Krakow and Budapest – all popular destinations for UK families travelling abroad during the peak summer holiday season.
Months after EES went live, many airports still do not have fully functioning self-service kiosks in place, while border staffing levels and infrastructure remain inadequate to process peak passenger volumes.
The result is avoidable delays, longer queues and unnecessary stress for UK passengers travelling during the busiest holiday period of the year.
Ryanair is advising UK passengers travelling to and from non-Schengen destinations, or transiting through affected European airports, to allow extra time for their journey and be prepared for extended waits at passport control, where EES checks may require passport scanning, fingerprint capture and facial image verification.
The European Commission has said the impact of the new system has been ‘limited’ in most EU airports.
However, many key travel bodies have reported otherwise.
An open letter from Airports Council International Europe said: ‘Since the full rollout of the EES in April, waiting times at border control have increased significantly, now reaching up to five hours during peak traffic periods.
‘These delays are impacting millions of passengers entering the Schengen Area, including families travelling with young children, elderly passengers and persons with reduced mobility.
‘At the same time, airports and airlines are experiencing growing operational disruption, including flight delays and missed connections and increasing pressure on frontline staff.’
Credit: Daily Mail
