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EES triples passport waits
Brits travelling to the Schengen area have faced nearly tripled passport control times under the EU’s Entry Exit System (EES), with a boss at Rome’s Fiumicino airport saying processing time rose from seven minutes to 20 minutes even after improvements.
The BBC said the EES requires non-EU citizens entering the Schengen area, made up of 29 European countries, to register fingerprints and a photo on arrival, with the information checked when they leave.
Ryanair warned passengers travelling to Europe this summer to “allow extra time for their journey and be prepared for extended waits at passport control,” and the London Evening Standard reported that waiting times for British holidaymakers at passport control “have tripled” due to the new system.
The Independent also reported that Rome’s Fiumicino airport chief aviation officer Ivan Bassato said processing times for Britons increased from seven to 20 minutes, while Wizz Air UK advised British passengers to arrive three hours before flights from European airports.
Airport bosses and bugs
Ivan Bassato, chief aviation officer at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, told the BBC that the integration with e-gates “improved things significantly,” but he said the complexity of the system still meant the time for UK nationals to get through the border had risen from seven minutes to 20 minutes.
The BBC also quoted Bassato saying, “I think that we need to fix urgently certain aspects of the system,” as it described hours-long queues at some European airports and passengers reporting missed flights home.
At Portugal’s Faro airport, Superintendent Pedro Oliveira told the BBC that “sometimes what used to be a 10-minute queue… takes over 30 minutes,” while insisting waits of over an hour were very rare.
The London Evening Standard reported that the Police Aux Frontieres have deployed more staff to UK-based checkpoints to manually register those leaving for France, with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander brokering the agreement with her French counterpart Phillippe Tabarot.
EU support and next steps
The European Commission (EC) told the BBC that in most EU airports disruption is limited and added that it will continue to support member states, saying, “This support will continue to the fullest extent possible.”
The Independent reported that France’s Ministry of the Interior praised the EES, saying it has processed over 110 million entries and exits, prevented over 44,000 entry refusals, and has not caused major congestion at French transport hubs.
Metro.co.uk said the EES technology has suffered from bugs, with border police reporting lengthy queues, and it quoted Ryanair warning customers to “allow extra time for their journey and be prepared for extended waits at passport control” caused by “the failed EES rollout.”
In Rome, the BBC reported that Bassato said the airport found it impractical to have large volumes of passengers using self-service “kiosks,” and he said children under-12 can’t use e-gates and must go to a border officer.
