Two days before the EU entry-exit system takes effect, a leading travel industry figure has warned that British travellers should allow up to four hours from touchdown for delays at European airports.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, was speaking to the BBC Today programme about the impact of Europe’s new digital borders scheme – which starts to be rolled out on Sunday 12 October.
Third-country nationals, including UK passport holders, will be obliged to provide fingerprints and facial biometrics when entering the Schengen area – comprising all EU countries except Ireland and Cyprus, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
European Union member states have been given six months to roll out the entry-exit system (EES). But there are concerns that key airports in southern Europe could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of British holidaymakers.
Ms Lo Bue-Said said: “The concern will be, when you have flights arriving at one of these airports, at the same time, it’s already a bottleneck – this is going to add even more of an issue.
“So our advice is actually to make sure, where possible, you’re leaving yourself between three and four hours from the point of entry.”
The Today presenter, Nick Robinson, interjected: “Three or four hours? If you’re going away for the weekend, you might as well not bother.”
Ms Lo-Bue Said continued, “You may be going for a concert, you may be going for a meeting, you may be going for a wedding, for a cruise.
“If you’re not leaving yourself enough time and you unfortunately arrive at an airport where there is a bottleneck, which in a lot of places there are already, this is going to add another layer of frustration and delay.”
Initially, only a small proportion of British travellers will be required to provide biometrics. Each nation is making its own decision about how to roll out the digital borders scheme.
While the Czech Republic, Estonia and Luxembourg say they will process all arrivals and departures from day one. The UK’s most popular overseas nation, Spain, will initially apply the EES only to a single arriving flight at Madrid airport on Sunday.
Within six months, though, every entry and exit across a Schengen frontier should be noted on a central database.
In the hour from 11.50pm on Friday night, 10 October, Palma airport in Spain is expecting nine flight arrivals from the UK – carrying more than 1,500 people, the vast majority of them British passport holders. The Independent has counted 80 kiosks for biometric registration at the Mallorcan airport.
When the EES was first conceived, the UK was part of the EU – and there was no expectation that British travellers would be subject to the checks. But under the Brexit deal, Boris Johnson’s government negotiated for UK passport holders to become third-country nationals.
