EU airports to face border delays due to no-deal Brexit

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Which?has warned that the British holidaymakers might have to face ‘hours of delay’ at the EU airports due to no-deal Brexit as there might be additional entry checks in some of the Europe’s most popular holiday destinations.

There will be significant hold-ups for travellers and as per the consumer watchdog, Which? Alicante will be the worst affected if Britain leaves the EU without a deal. It has 43% of the passenger arriving from the UK.

On an average everyday as per the analysis a no-deal scenario will lead to an additional 201 hours of immigration checks.

It has been predicted that Spain would be the hardest hit destination by the no-deal which is also home to the six of the top 10 busiest airports for UK arrivals.

Tenerife South, Lanzarote, Malaga, Ibiza and Palma de Majorca will also be affected. If no contingent arrangements are made to service the additional entry checks the airports will face severe difficulties.

The checks are made on passport validity,expiry dates, visitors’ purpose , length of stay and financial support.

As per the European Tourism Association( EToa) the additional checks required in the event of a no-deal Brexit might add up to 90 seconds at border control for each passport holder.

For a typical Ryanair flight it will lead to more than  four-and –half hours additional checks.

Rory Boland, Which? travel editor suggested that airports can be chaotic at the best of times, but if additional checks at passport control in Spain, Italy and other popular EU destinations are implemented in the event of a no-deal,  very long queues will be  an unwanted side effect.

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