Travel industry fears summer disruption amid new biometric checks at European borders

Travel industry leaders have called on the European Commission to tell all border authorities to stand down the new entry-exit system (EES) if needed, as fears increase of summer disruption.European airports have warned of a potentially “disastrous” experience for passengers and huge queues unless the new biometric controls for foreign visitors are relaxed.Most British holidaymakers to Europe will need to be fingerprinted, photographed and registered, and UK firms have reported wide divergence in how the rules have been applied since the soft launch of the scheme in October.The staggered start has already seen long queues at some European airports, despite provisions for border officers to relax the requirements. Currently, states only need register a minimum 35% of travellers, but in theory all passengers are due to complete the EES registration from 10 April.Border authorities are allowed to reduce the number or extent of checks – or even stand down the system – to avoid significant disruption and large queues.Many border crossings had the EES infrastructure up and ready well before last October’s launch, including on British soil at Eurotunnel in Folkestone and Eurostar’s London St Pancras International station.EES kiosks at St Pancras International station in London. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty ImagesBut most visitors to the 29 countries introducing EES will probably register their details at border control on landing at airports. The trade body Airports Council International (ACI) has reported that the system was causing delays of up to three hours, with airports in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy among the worst affected.Olivier Jankovec, the director general of Europe" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="25366" data-entity-type="organization">ACI Europe, said: “The chronic understaffing of all border control guards was an issue before – and the rollout of EES makes it worse. We’re routinely seeing, with only up to 35% of people coming into Schengen being registered, queues of up to two hours. It’s not sustainable and we fear it is only going to get worse.“We’re especially concerned for July and August when we have double the traffic. We could see queues of up to five hours, and that is making us very nervous: it creates a disastrous passenger experience and a safety hazard, as well as possible missed connecting flights.”The UK travel association Abta has urged the EU to ensure all member states and border authorities have told staff on the ground to use the contingency measures to avoid long delays at passport control.The Abta chief executive, Mark Tanzer, has written to the EU commissioner for migration, Magnus Brunner, asking him to keep the system under review and push for additional border guards at the busiest times.Tanzer said: “The ambition of a project like EES means it was never going to go completely smoothly, and we were prepared for that. However, what is frustrating is that border authorities have it within their power to ease queues and deal with issues as they arise – but that doesn’t seem to be happening across the board.”Last week a commission spokesperson said contingency measures would be available for at least 90 days from the April deadline, hinting at a possible further six-week extension to cover the summer.Jankovec said airports had “not received formal notification that the ability to suspend EES will be extended, nor the conditions required”.Queues in Lisbon airport had reached seven hours just before new year, he said, leading the Portuguese authorities to suspend the system. Many self-service kiosks for EES did not work reliably, while no state bar Sweden had allowed the use of an app to allow travellers to pre-register details.Jankovec added: “We can do a band-aid for the summer but we need all these things to be addressed, under a coordinated European approach.”In the UK, Eurotunnel said it had begun the phased rollout of EES for coach passengers and lorry drivers smoothly and was “fully prepared”, but had not yet started registering tourist vehicles, awaiting a date from French authorities.Eurostar, which has invested heavily in new kiosks at St Pancras, has yet to switch them on. It said EES checks were being completed manually by border officers, and it would introduce kiosk-based processing once the software and dates were set by the French interior ministry.