Consumer site LADbible may not usually top corporate reading lists, but its 10 April report echoes concerns voiced by the UK travel industry: some British holiday-makers are facing up to four-hour waits as the EU’s Entry/Exit System beds in. Advantage Travel Partnership’s CEO, quoted in the article, urged passengers to arrive ‘four hours before departure’ at Southern European airports. Examples cited include a three-hour queue in Lanzarote and similar scenes in Brussels and Prague. Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary brands the roll-out “a shambles” and calls for a five-month postponement. The Sun adds anecdotal evidence of families missing transfers after multi-hour holds at immigration. Why should businesses care about a tabloid-style warning? Because the same airports—Lisbon, Prague, Brussels—are hubs for conference traffic and short-notice project work. If leisure lines spill into business lanes, VIP travellers risk missing meetings, with knock-on costs for accommodation, per diems and SLA penalties. Mobility managers should adjust traveller communications: advise employees to build larger buffers, book flexible onward rail tickets and carry evidence of accommodation and return flights, all of which can speed secondary checks if queues force manual processing. The Home Office maintains biometric enrolment ‘should only take one to two minutes’, but accepts peaks could be longer at busy times. Until consistency improves, four-hour warnings, however sensational, may be prudent for critical trips.
Source: LADbible
