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New border checks are leading to queues of up to five hours, passengers waiting outdoors and some flights leaving half full, airlines and airports have warned the president of the European Commission.
In a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, industry groups ACI Europe, which represents airports in the region, and Airlines 4 Europe and Iata, representing airlines, called for an option to suspend checks under the EU’s entry-exit system as summer holidays bring millions more travellers through the region’s airports.
The summer will bring a “significant worsening of an already very difficult situation for passengers” unless the Commission allows airports to opt out of the checks, they said.
The groups called on the Commission to allow airports to “completely suspend” checks “whenever passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities” during July and August. They said permanent flexibility must be allowed after September “under clearly defined exceptional circumstances”.
“Some international travellers are reconsidering trips to Europe because of the prospect of excessive border delays,” the industry groups said. “This is undermining Europe’s reputation, European tourism and connectivity, in particular.”
The system, introduced gradually starting last October, requires non-EU citizens to register with fingerprints and a photograph at their destination airport.
But the rollout has been blighted by problems with automated booths and long queues as airports struggle to cope with additional waiting times.
“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,” the letter said.
“Airlines face half-empty planes at gate closing time, while passengers are stuck in border control queues.”
A spokesperson for ACI said some of these planes were delayed, while others were forced to leave a proportion of their passengers behind.
The rules allow countries flexibility to skip some of the checks, though this is due to be phased out in September. Despite this, “excessive queues” are still forming, the letter warned.
These changes are needed until airports have enough staff for the system, the automated kiosks are sufficiently reliable, and a delayed pre-registration app has been fully rolled out, the industry groups said.
“The reputation of the European Union and the confidence in the regulatory framework are . . . at stake,” they said.
The letter to von der Leyen is the industry’s strongest warning about the system so far, and comes weeks before the summer deluge of tourists to the region.
“During July and August alone, European airports are expected to handle approximately 40mn more passengers than during the previous two months,” it added. “The Commission and the member states must take stock of the reality of the current situation and of what our air transport system will face over the coming weeks.”
The US is the largest international source of travellers coming to Europe, followed by the UK.
The Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Last week a Commission spokesperson said that “the entry/exit system is fully operational across all Schengen countries and works well” and that the “rules provide for the necessary flexibility to ensure border fluidity”.
They added that “most often long waiting times are not related to the operations of the EES, but to pre-existing factors, such as staff shortages, infrastructure limitations, as well as concentration of flights in specific slots”.
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