Airport queues ‘shameful’
BRITISH holidaymakers are having to wait for hours in queues for passport control at European airports this summer after border checks were tightened.
Passengers have been forced to wait for up to four hours, sometimes in stifling heat that has caused people to faint, after arriving at airports popular with British tourists.
The delays are being blamed on the introduction of newly toughened and more time-consuming immigration checks following terror attacks across the Continent. An airline association last night said the problem was likely to worsen in the coming weeks because the new checks had yet to be fully put in place. Passengers’ frustration has been made worse by a lack of border officials it is claimed.
Airlines for Europe (A4E), the association that represents carriers such as BA parent company IAG, Ryanair and easyjet, said lengthy delays had been caused by many countries failing to provide enough staff for passport checks. It warned that “shameful”
queues can be expected at airports including Madrid, Palma, Lisbon, Lyon, Paris Orly, Milan and Brussels.
The problem is being blamed on the introduction of tighter European Union-introduced border controls in the Schengen area, which allows passport-free movement across much of the EU.
Previously, British travellers have been given only visual passport checks by European border officials.
But new rules, which were introduced after a series of terror attacks in Europe, mean checks against a series of databases are now carried out on each passenger from non-schengen countries.
The new tests, on both entry and exit, are said to take around two minutes per passenger and see their details run through databases to alert authorities if they are known to pose a threat.
Thomas Reynaert, A4E’S managing director, said: “Travellers face long lines and can’t get on their flights. Queuing for up to four hours has been the top record these days.”
Dr Michael Bond said he had queued on the tarmac for an hour on a recent trip to Corsica. He told the Daily Mail: “‘We used to zoom through passport control after getting off the aircraft. Not this time. The queue stretched from the Tarmac where we landed. It was six people wide and there were two people manning the passport control.”
Palma airport in Majorca has been one of the worst hit.is one of the worst hit. Connor Aston, a tourist, said: “There were four guys standing in only one booth yesterday at passport control. I felt they were punishing the UK residents and had a very abrupt attitude. It was absolutely not a good experience.”
The six-month period to put the enhanced checks in place ends on October 7.
An Association of British Travel Agents spokesman said: “New, stricter passport checks are resulting in longer queues at some airports, including Palma, which is already busy due to a significant increase in passenger numbers. Tour operators will ensure that customers get to the airport in plenty of time so that they are not in danger of missing their flights.
“However, independent travellers will need to check the situation with their airlines and, where necessary, ensure they factor these longer queuing times into their travel plans when flying in and out of the airport.
“It is also extremely important that border control checkpoints are sufficiently resourced so that queuing times are kept to a minimum.”