Aviation industry slams EU border checks as millions face holiday misery
New EU rules have left Brits facing summer holiday chaos on an unprecedented scale, with five hour waits at passport control and thousands missing flights altogether.
Now, a cluster of aviation industry groups has called on the trading bloc’s most senior official to suspend its new biometric border system, EES, whose botched rollout threatens to ruin thousands of summer holidays.
In a joint open letter to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, representatives from ACI Europe, Airlines 4 Europe and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that the new digital bureaucracy is hitting “millions of passengers”.
The industry bodies described this moment – just weeks before schools around Europe are set to break up for the summer – as a “critical point”.
They say that the new system is “creating severe operational consequences disrupting passengers and putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure”.
“This is not an issue confined to Europe’s largest hubs. Smaller airports serving major tourism destinations are equally affected.
“Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough.
“Airlines face half-empty planes at gate closing time, while passengers are stuck in border control queues.”
The new Entry / Exit System (EES), which has been clumsily introduced across European airports throughout the spring, promised to do away with passport stamps in favour of a digitised fingerprint database.
Back in June, the president of ACI Europe Stefan Schulte issued a stark warning to European politicians: “Stop pretending […] that EES is working just fine. It is not.”
Schulte added: “This is about showing respect and decency for those who chose to travel to the EU, and safeguarding our reputation as a welcoming and efficient destination.”
Reports emerged back in April that Greece was looking to exempt British tourists from the system, though Greek authorities were overridden by Brussels and the exemption was overturned.