British holiday-makers and business travellers have reported waits of up to two hours at Continental airports since the European Union switched on its long-delayed Entry-Exit System (EES) on 10 April. The Independent’s travel desk collated first-hand accounts published on 11 April describing chaotic scenes at Munich, Pisa and Schiphol, where non-EU passengers must now register fingerprints and facial images at self-service kiosks before seeing a border officer. While some airports processed passengers smoothly, others suffered broken machines, contradictory signage and staff shortages that forced officers to abandon biometrics and revert to manual passport stamping. Travellers complained that repeat visitors, whose biometrics were already on file, were still funnelled into the same queues as first-timers, creating unnecessary bottlenecks. For UK firms the teething problems come just weeks before the first big summer conference season. Travel managers are being advised to allow an extra 60-90 minutes at departure airports inside the Schengen area, especially for early-morning wave flights that carry a high proportion of UK nationals. Missed connections could trigger duty-of-care issues and additional hotel costs if not planned for. The episode is a preview of challenges expected when the EU’s separate ETIAS travel-authorisation scheme goes live late next year. Companies may wish to audit traveller profiles now, ensure passports are biometric-chip compliant and brief staff on kiosk procedures to minimise disruption. Airports and the European Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems (eu-LISA) say processing times will fall once all passengers have been registered, but UK travel trade bodies are calling for a fast-track lane for repeat visitors to avoid summer gridlock.
Source: The Independent
