Industry heavyweights give verdict on entry-exit system

“I am pretty certain it's going to go wrong.

- SIMON CALDER TRAVEL CORRESPONDENT

” Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair, was not optimistic when I asked him about the prospects for the EU entry-exit system (EES).

As you know, the latest benefit bestowed by Brexit is the right to be fingerprinted and photographed when entering or leaving the Schengen area - in addition to the existing manual inspection and stamping of your passport.

The Schengen area (comprising most of the EU plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) has 1,800 border crossings, with more than 500 million entries and exits a year.

Starting on Sunday, the member states have 180 days to make all their frontiers EES compliant, with faces and fingerprints stored on a central EU database.

It’s fair to say the travel industry is not overly optimistic about how smoothly the new process will prove. Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, advises “leaving yourself between three and four hours from the point of entry” before you plan to do anything sensible.

She told the BBC