A LEADING European airport figure says that passengers could face huge queues at airports this summer due to the EU’s Entry-Exit System (EES) and has warned of a ‘complete collapse’.
Stefan Schulte is present of ACI Europe- a trade association that represents European airports.
As the height of the summer season beckons, Schulte said that the impact of EES is ‘what keeps me and many other airport CEOs across Europe awake at night’.
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Speaking at an industry event in Prague, he said that politicians should ‘stop pretending… that EES is working just fine. It is not’.
The biometric system must be used by passport holders of non-EU states like the UK when entering one of the 29 Schengen Zone members.
It was made fully operational in April but the use of EES has been inconsistent, with some passengers missing flights due to delays caused by the biometric processes.
Schulte, who is also CEO of Fraport, which operates Germany’s Frankfurt airport, said: “Passengers are queueing for hours at peak traffic times and I just do not know how we will be able to cope in the coming weeks with the expected increase in traffic.”
“EU home affairs commissioner Magnus Brunner and home affairs ministers must stop pretending the situation is manageable and that the EES is working just fine. It is not.”
Schulte suggested that the EU should give border controls ‘full flexibility’” to suspend EES when necessary to ‘avoid further chaos’ and he demanded a ‘rethink of those processes’.
“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,” he added.
The European Commission is allowing EES to be suspended in some circumstances until September.
Earlier this year, Greece temporarily suspended the requirement for UK passport holders to go through EES biometric registration.
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Why on earth did the EU come up with the current EES system requiring all the information they say they need at the point of entry and exit. It should have been obvious that this would cause long queues at peak periods like school holidays that would deter people from travelling into the EU. If it was imperative that all this information was needed, why did they not introduce a visa system so people and families could provide the information in advance of travel. Most people book their holidays in advance so it would be no problem for them apply for a visa at the same time. This kind of bureaucracy is why the UK voted for Brexit.