The trade is waiting to see the impact on airport wait times of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) after measures allowing for it to be paused during busy periods came to an end on Sunday.
EU member states had been granted the power to temporarily suspend the new biometric checks on passengers during periods of severe congestion over the summer.
Countries including Greece, France and Spain took advantage of the special measures amid multiple reports of passengers missing flights due to long queues.
But despite repeated warnings from the trade about the inefficacy of EES – including Airports Council International Europe President Stefan Schulte saying in June that it ‘keeps airport CEOs across Europe awake at night‘ – the ability to pause the checks was withdrawn on Sunday (6 September).
Speaking at Advantage Travel Partnership’s UK Media Briefing yesterday (8 September), Advantage CEO and UK Outbound Travel Group Founder Julia Lo Bue-Said expressed concern EES was ‘not fit for purpose’.
She said: “EES has been a significant disruptor for our industry and for consumers. Whilst it may not have stopped people travelling, we did see it impact confidence.
“As we approached the July and August period, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether or not people really could be bothered to stand in queues for hours.
“We’ve been working across different coalitions to lobby the EU to ensure that [EES] is fit for purpose. There are a lot of challenges that consumers are having to navigate and our role is to ensure that our members are in the right position to be informed, able to educate the consumer and provide them with all the information they need to be able to make educated choices, and be prepared.”
An International Air Transport Association (IATA) spokesperson also highlighted EES’s operational issues and called for the flexibility measures to be extended.
The spokesperson told Travel Gossip: “We have now passed the peak travel period, while the suspension of the EES has also expired as of 6 September. Even while the suspension was in place, operational challenges continued to emerge across multiple border crossing points and across different modes of transport, including ports and rail crossings.
“IATA’s position is that the temporary flexibility mechanism should be resumed and remain in place at least until the end of the winter season, and until the necessary operational conditions are in place. This includes stable system performance, as well as the full deployment of the supporting infrastructure and personnel.”
However, Spanish Tourist Office UK Director José Manuel de Juan González rejected concerns EES would cause delays over the winter period, telling Travel Gossip: “The new EES system has been well introduced in Spain and is working as planned.
“We aren’t anticipating that EES will have a major impact on airport wait times in general or affect number of tourists travelling to Spain.”
