Holidaymakers brace for a summer of chaos
Queues for border checks at ports, train stations and airports risk derailing travel, reports
Facing what looks to be the first year of undisrupted travel since 2019, families have been booking holidays with gusto. Yet passengers hoping for a smooth experience at the border may be in for a nasty surprise – particularly when crossing the Channel.
While industry insiders say the chaos that plagued airports last year as a result of staff shortages are unlikely to be repeated, holidaymakers still face problems at the border.
In comments that overshadowed Eurostar’s new brand launch, Gwendoline Cazenave, its chief executive, claimed that the Channel Tunnel train operator was being forced to run services with around a third of seats unsold because of post-brexit border checks.
“We cannot offer enough seats because of this bottleneck at stations,” she said, claiming that trains typically carrying 900 passengers were now operating with 350 empty seats.
Fingerprint technology at the border between Britain and the EU, already pushed back after being wrapped in Brussels red tape, had been scheduled for launch in May. But the new entry and exit system, or EES, will now not come into force until later this year at the earliest.
Airlines, airports and ports breathed a huge sigh of relief at the start of last week when the rollout of the EU’S biometric border system was delayed. It removed the prospect of every British passport holder having to provide biometric data, such as fingerprints and facial images, at the EU border – and the huge queues that would have accompanied it.
However, Cazenave suggested that the EES rollout delay was to blame for the Eurostar’s empty seats – resulting in the continued requirement for EU border officials to “wet stamp” British passports, which French officials cannot process quick enough.
Like ferry crossings at Dover and the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone, French border checks for the Eurostar are conducted on British soil by Police Aux Frontieres (PAF) and cannot be conducted by the respective operator’s staff.
Unlike Dover and Folkestone, Eurostar’s terminus at London St Pancras suffers from being physically constrained. “They simply don’t have any space,” explains one industry insider. “And it’s even worse at Paris Gare du Nord.”
Last summer, there were nine French border police posts handling passengers at St Pancras. Only one more has been built since. However, a rail industry source adds that there is often “insufficient French border police presence to man all available booths”.
It is not the first time this problem has emerged. In late
July last year, the first weekend of the summer holidays, a row erupted at the Port of Dover after newly installed PAF booths there were left unmanned, creating huge traffic jams.
The delay to the rollout of EES means British holidaymakers will be exposed to a repeat of the French truculence. PAF agents must be present to stamp the passports if holidaymakers are to cross the border, leaving us at their mercy.
“In terms of process, this year will be no different to last year,” says a source. “Of course, it will be a lot better than what it would have been had the EU demanded biometric tests were conducted manually. But [at best] it is only going to be a little better than last year.” St Pancras played host to chaotic scenes last summer as queues for Eurostar services snaked out of the station building and on to the streets of central London.
Matters became so acute for Eurostar that it was forced to switch off its customer service phone lines after being overwhelmed with a deluge of complaints. Cazenave insists that the issue is not “impossible to tackle. We have to automise more than before.” But there is scepticism within the industry about how that would be done before biometric checks are rolled out.
Running two-thirds full services is seen as an interim measure to deal with its current problems – but one that will hurt Eurostar’s already precariously placed finances.
The company was close to going bust during the pandemic and the failure to ramp up services could cause difficulty honouring pricey leasing agreements on the operator’s new fleet of Velaro trains, built by Siemens at a cost of €600m (£528m).
Britain no longer has exposure to Eurostar’s financial situation after David Cameron and George Osborne oversaw the sale of the Government’s 40pc stake in 2015. Amid palpable fears within the industry about how this summer will unfold, there is more cause for optimism at airports.
“I am confident that they [airports] are ready,” Johan Lundgren, the easyjet chief executive, said yesterday. Provided any strikes by Border Force can be navigated, there is hope that this will be a “normal summer”. Airports and airlines insist they have hired enough people for security checks and baggage handling.
But British airports’ gain could be EU airports’ pain. Britons will be denied the opportunity of using EU epassport gates for the second year running, despite EU citizens being allowed to use e-gates when they enter the UK. It means returning holidaymakers may face long queues for manual passport checks.
“You don’t see the chaos in arrivals lounges at Paris Charles de Gaulle or Carcassonne airport,” says a source. “The long queues are often missed by the British press.”
The EU holds the key to solving Britain’s post-brexit travelling woes, industry insiders say.
Complex talks are continuing between airports, ports, PAF, the French interior ministry, Border Force and the Home Office. Convincing Brussels to allow the greater use of technology is key. Fingerprints and facial recognition checks do not need to be conducted “manually” at the border itself – despite claims to the contrary from the EU.
The hope is that eurozone officials can be convinced passengers will be able to upload their biometric data using smartphone technology that already exists. This would negate the need for the data to be checked manually – as is now the case for UK visitors to the US.
Even if stations, ports and airports get through this summer unscathed, insiders say that failure to agree on technology is simply putting off the inevitable. One says: “A digital solution exists. This solution is already being championed by the UK Government and it is vital that ministers work with French counterparts to enable implementation of a digital border that will smooth passenger flows and help beat delays.”
Another adds: “Manual checks can only be chaos.”
Perhaps not wanting to put travellers off from booking with easyjet, Lundgren paints a more optimistic picture.
“There will be more capacity across the network this summer, but on the other hand, the sector and the industry is better prepared.
“I travel to our bases every other week,” adds the Swedish executive. “Airports are in general better equipped and they have more resilience. Not just the passport experience, but the whole airport experience. We’ll have to see what
it is [like].”