Hour-long queues in Prague airport as EU entry-exit system comes into effect

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Lengthy queues have constructed up at one of many few EU airports the place the brand new entry-exit system was deliberate to take impact on day one.

The Schengen space digital borders scheme is being regularly rolled out throughout Europe, however three nations have mentioned they are going to begin fingerprinting and photographing all “third-country nationals” from the outset: the Czech Republic, Estonia and Luxembourg.

Prague airport is by far the busiest location intending to use the entry-exit system in full to arrivals. Passengers from the primary few UK flights to the touch down within the Czech capital on Sunday morning informed The Unbiased they’d gone by way of the conventional analogue checks with no important wait.

Dozens of border registration machines have been put in at Terminal 1 of Prague airport to file biometrics. The purpose is that arriving travellers will present their fingerprints and facial biometrics forward of the passport management desks.

However the authorities ordered passport employees to start out recording the biometrics at their posts slightly than utilizing the kiosks.

Queues rapidly constructed up as arrivals from British airports, in addition to Turkey, Egypt and the UAE, converged on the passport desks.

On the terminal, arriving and departing passengers mingled. Stuart Linden Rhodes, who was on the airport to fly to Leeds Bradford, noticed the queues. He informed The Unbiased: “All machines nonetheless switched off, heading to an hour now. Fingers and eyes being completed on the passport management desk.”

Passengers from London initially reported ready about an hour for his or her biometrics to be collected, and for his or her passports to be inspected and stamped.

However Hamilton Nash, who arrived later from London, mentioned: ”Simply fought by way of the queues. No machines working. It’s an hour to 90-minute-long queue.

“They simply began permitting Australian and British passport holders to make use of the EU channel to ease the congestion within the airport.”

The entry-exit system applies to travellers leaving the Schengen space in addition to arriving. However Mr Linden Rhodes reported that his biometrics weren’t recorded on departure. “Traditional exit, glare at you after which your passport earlier than stamping it,” he mentioned.

Beginning on Sunday 12 October, Schengen space member states have 180 days to make all their frontiers EES-compliant. The faces and fingerprints of third-country nationals, together with British passport holders, are saved on a central EU database.

Senior journey figures have warned of lengthy waits. Michael O’Leary, chief government of Ryanair, informed The Unbiased: “I’m fairly sure it’s going to go incorrect.” However he added: “We’re shifting into the winter interval, so there’s quite a bit much less strain on, however I believe it will likely be bumpy and lumpy by way of the winter.”

Mark Tanzer, chief government of Abta, the journey affiliation, mentioned: “I’m afraid there’ll undoubtedly be some delays as this new entry and exit system for the Schengen space comes into impact.”

Julia Lo Bue-Stated, chief government of Benefit Journey Partnership, suggested “leaving your self between three and 4 hours from the purpose of entry” earlier than persevering with with journey plans.

She informed the BBC At this time programme: “In the event you’re not leaving your self sufficient time and also you sadly arrive at an airport the place there’s a bottleneck, which in plenty of locations there are already, that is going so as to add one other layer of frustration and delay.”

The Schengen space – comprising many of the EU plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland – has 1,800 border crossings, with greater than 500 million entries and exits a yr.