Brits heading abroad are sharing their experiences of being stuck in “nightmare” queues at airports. People travelling to Kos, Corfu, and Faro have reported issues in recent days.
It comes as Brits travelling to Europe are forced to contend with the European Union’s Entry/exit system (EES), which requires third-country nationals to provide biometric data, including fingerprints and photographs. Passports are also scanned at the border, creating a digital record which is valid for three years and replaces passport stamping.
In some cases this has led to lengthy delays at border control and in April about 100 passengers were stranded in Milan due to the queues.
As reported by the Manchester Evening News industry leaders have called for changes to be made, urging the EU to allow airports to be more flexible in busy periods.
As it stands, airports are able to remove the EES for brief periods if queues are too long.
A TikTok user uploaded a video of queues at Kos Airport, stating that after getting in the queue at 12.30pm they were eventually waved through just after 2pm.
One social media user said: “We was there too yesterday from 12.30pm, it was awful. Thought I was going to pass out.”
However another person said: “The airport was busy when I was there last week but passport control was literally empty. I just went straight through.”
In Corfu, passengers were reportedly forced to queue outside the airport itself even after arriving three hours before their flight time.
One traveller wrote: “Honestly what a nightmare. Got to the airport three hours before takeoff and was still queueing outside the airport an hour later.”
Kenton Jarvis, chief executive of easyJet, said that delays had been better than feared for the start of the school holidays.
However, he suggested that flexibility over temporarily suspending EES should be extended beyond September to cover the busy October half-term period.
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