Airports, airways warn new EU border checks snarling summer time journey

BRUSSELS (AFP) — European airports and airways warned the EU Wednesday that the bloc’s new border verify system was inflicting “severe” disruption, urging it to behave now to stop summer time journey chaos for tens of millions.

“We have reached a critical point,” they mentioned in a joint letter to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, asking her for an “immediate intervention before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season.”

The European Union’s new Entry/Exit System was launched final 12 months to register non-EU vacationers getting into the 27-nation bloc.

The new scheme replaces handbook passport stamping and information vacationers’ private and biometric information to trace overstays and refusals of entry.

But airports and airways mentioned the present implementation was “disrupting passengers and putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure.”

Since the system was absolutely rolled out in April, they mentioned wait occasions at border management had “increased significantly,” reaching as much as 5 hours throughout peak site visitors durations.

“Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings,” they wrote. “Airlines face half-empty planes at gate closing time, while passengers are stuck in border control queues.”

To deal with the summer time vacation rush — when European airports anticipate to deal with as much as 40 million further passengers — they referred to as for international locations to have the ability to absolutely droop the brand new checks in periods of heavy site visitors.

The attraction was signed collectively by the ACI Europe airports group, the A4E affiliation of European airways, and the International Air Transport Association bringing collectively greater than 360 airways from around the globe.

Asked concerning the letter, a European Commission spokesperson mentioned the affect of the system remained “limited” in most European airports, and famous that EU member states had agreed to the reform.

“We will be calling for another meeting with representatives of the industry to take place in the next days,” he added.

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By Agence France-Presse