BRITS will be able to skip long Entry/Exit System queues in one European country this summer – and it isn’t Greece.
Brits can now use e-gates at borders when entering France, despite the new Entry/Exit System (EES).
Previously, British holidaymakers have been unable to use e-gates due to the implementation of EES, which requires Brits to register upon their first border crossing into Europe after April 12.
However, according to The Connexion, the UAF French airports group has revealed that visitors can enter through e-gates at French airports if they first use an EES pre-registration kiosk.
The change should help Brits to avoid long queues and wait times at French borders.
Nice is one airport letting all Brits through e-gates without manual passport stamping and face-to-face border guard checks.
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The airport is even opening extra e-gates and changing signs to ‘All Passports‘ when British flights arrive to help people move more quickly through the airport, according to Riviera Radio.
Currently, the self-registration EES kiosks at Nice Airport are not being used as there have been technical delays in opening them.
Bordeaux Airport, along with some other French airports, is now also looking into allowing non-EU travellers – which includes Brits – to access e-gates.
It comes as airport delays have been experienced across Europe due to queues at EES kiosks.
For example, travellers recently spent five hours queueing at Faro Airport in Portugal.
In fact, queues became so bad that Greece announced it was going to suspend EES, before backtracking.
EES – which has been in place since April 12 – is meant to speed up processing at borders, but due to many Brits still needing to register, many popular destinations have been experiencing lengthy queues.
EES applies to all Schengen countries, which include:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland