goinggreek.info
The Agora => UK & World News => Topic started by: Karavados on Thursday, 03 August, 2017 @ 10:58:04
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/01/passengers-facing-four-hour-security-queues-at-some-european-airports
British passengers flying to and from continental Europe for their summer holidays face the prospect of “devastating” delays because of tougher Schengen area border controls, Europe’s largest airline lobby group has warned.
Are the new constraints and extra checks being applied at the airport on Kef. ?
Are there additionally long delays (longer than the usual busy time delays ) ?
How much time should people allow to get through passport control on the island ?
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Tourists are having to queue for up to four hours at passport control because airports in some EU countries have bungled the introduction of tougher security checks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/02/ministers-accused-ignoring-warnings-airport-passport-check-chaos/
People who've been out to Kef recently haven't mentioned anything about delays when we've spoken, doesn't mean it didn't happen but, if it did, I guess it didn't spoil their hols.
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Same as normal......
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In theory, all arrivals from outside the Shengen area (including the UK) should be subject to extra controls. I have heard stories from passengers that have had a long wait to get through passport control and then others that have been waved through. Might depend on who is on duty, or even the day of the week!
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Might depend on who is on duty, or even the day of the week!
Wot I wos thinkin'.
No info about Kef but more about the new regulations in the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airport-passport-queues-british-holidaymakers-eu-alicante-malaga-palma-barcelona-schengen-area-a7872106.html):
What are the new procedures when you’re flying out of the Schengen area?
At a typical holiday airport, every passenger goes through the security check as normal. The standard search for weapons, explosives and liquids over 100ml has not changed. But once you get through into the departures area you could notice a scrum of passengers stretching back from the passport desks for travellers heading out of the Schengen area. It’s a simple matter of resources; it appears there aren’t enough people or electronic checkpoints to cope with the demands of the new rules at peak times.
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I am probably showing my ignorance (yet again) but UK was never in Schengen so why have the rules changed and how. Or is this all just another example of newspapers inventing something to fill the pages during the silly season?
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When we were waiting to leave in June this happened to people coming from Serbia and a Thomas Cook (I think) landed and the passengers had to wait out in the heat to go through passport control. Apparently the airport staff gave out water and got some families through. When the Serbians had got through they waved everybody through and gave them more water.
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I am probably showing my ignorance (yet again) but UK was never in Schengen so why have the rules changed and how. Or is this all just another example of newspapers inventing something to fill the pages during the silly season?
Ari, if you're accustomed to reading insurance documents this might be a joy for you. Or it might not. Seems the EU have realised that free movement is a lovely idea but bad people use it for bad purposes:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R0458&from=EN
Talking of free movement... reminds me to try some Voltarol
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Hm... new security arrangements aren't working too well... a woman from Brazil was due to fly from Paris to Copenhagen, was given the wrong boarding pass, no-one discovered the mistake, she boarded the wrong plane, ended up in Athens:
Oops! Passenger ends up on wrong Air France flight from Paris
https://www.thelocal.fr/20170728/oops-passenger-ends-up-on-wrong-air-france-flight-from-paris
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I am probably showing my ignorance (yet again) but UK was never in Schengen so why have the rules changed and how. Or is this all just another example of newspapers inventing something to fill the pages during the silly season?
Ari, if you're accustomed to reading insurance documents this might be a joy for you. Or it might not. Seems the EU have realised that free movement is a lovely idea but bad people use it for bad purposes:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R0458&from=EN
Talking of free movement... reminds me to try some Voltarol
At my age free movement gets me reaching for the Immodium! BTW, insurance policies are Janet & John compared to that gobbledygook.
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Britain pushed for extra security checks in European airports which are being blamed for huge queues.
Airports in France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Holland have been accused of failing to deploy enough staff to carry out the checks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/04/britain-pushed-extra-security-checks-blamed-huge-queues-european
The intermittent delays follow the introduction in March of EU regulations in the wake of the Paris and Brussels terror attacks. The new rules demand both entry and exit checks on passengers from countries – including Britain – outside the 26-nation Schengen border-free zone.
Member states are not obliged to check every non-Schengen passport until October, when regulation EU 2017/458 comes into full force, but several airports are already doing so and others are carrying out spot checks on selected flights.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/04/air-passengers-delays-strikes-border-controls-schengen-passports
That seems to support what Roger and janey said about it being a bit hit and miss.
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The Independent can reveal the onerous post-Brexit travel rules to be imposed by Europe.
Brussels has published the draft legislation (http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9763-2017-INIT/en/pdf) for dealing with “visa-exempt third country nationals”, which is what British travellers will become after the UK leaves the EU.
The new regulations will increase the cost and complexity of holidays and business trips to the Schengen Area, which includes 22 EU countries plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Red tape for travellers will be more tangled.
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/etias-europe-schengen-passports-permits-holidaymakers-a7877776.html
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Dodge the airport queues in Greece
Delays for passengers across Europe are set to worsen, but one country is avoiding the chaos
Airlines are warning that the passport queues in EU airports are likely to get worse before they get better — except, that is, in Greece.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/travel/dodge-the-airport-queues-in-greece-3x9zpgdk9
Article is behind a pay wall but what's visible suggests it's no great problem in Greece
er... could that mean Greece just hasn't got around to implementing it :iroll:
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Kindly be informed that the Hellenic Police implement the new EU Regulation 458/2017, according to which passports' and identities' crosscheck controls are carried out against databases, for all European citizens travelling to / from Non-Schengen destinations.These controls are conducted in reinforcement of the measures applied until today, at all border control points of European countries, to all passengers entering or exiting to/from Non-Schengen destinations.
Due to possibly increased waiting times required for the completion of these checks, which at peak times can take several minutes, passengers travelling to Non-Schengen destinations are kindly requested to timely proceed to Passport Control, taking into consideration the time to their boarding gate as set by their airline
This is from the Kefalonia Airport website.
https://www.efl-airport.gr/en
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Kindly be informed that the Hellenic Police implement the new EU Regulation 458/2017, according to which passports' and identities' crosscheck controls are carried out against databases, for all European citizens travelling to / from Non-Schengen destinations.These controls are conducted in reinforcement of the measures applied until today, at all border control points of European countries, to all passengers entering or exiting to/from Non-Schengen destinations.
Due to possibly increased waiting times required for the completion of these checks, which at peak times can take several minutes, passengers travelling to Non-Schengen destinations are kindly requested to timely proceed to Passport Control, taking into consideration the time to their boarding gate as set by their airline
This is from the Kefalonia Airport website.
https://www.efl-airport.gr/en (https://www.efl-airport.gr/en)
If they did implement this at Kef airport it would be utter chaos.
:oki:
Tony