Looking forward to a trip is the real start to a holiday in many ways. The anticipation builds from that point onwards until you find yourself on a plane, thrilled with the potential of new experiences and a break from daily reality.
Usually anticipation is a good thing, but with recent news around long queues at airports and jet fuel prices, for many, this has been overshadowed by concern and apprehension. You might have questions like, are airport queues as bad as they look online? Will my flight be cancelled? Will this be a stressful or relaxing trip to get to my destination?
Across Europe, travellers are reporting hours of queues and missed flights because of the new European Entry/Exit System (EES), which require passengers arriving from outside the Schengen area to register at an EES “kiosk” on arrival, where their fingerprints and facial biometrics will be scanned alongside passport checks.
British Airways plane landing at London City AirportGetty Images
The roll-out has been delayed several times, so the implementation hasn’t had the smoothest start. A handful of countries have even chosen to wave it. At the same time, concerns over jet fuel prices and availability following the conflict in the Middle East have increased.
Airlines have been quick to reassure passengers that summer plans will not be impacted. Neil Sorahan, Ryanair’s chief financial officer, said he was “increasingly confident that we will not see any supply shocks this summer” amid widespread fears of flight cancellations.
Willie Walsh, former British Airways CEO and now director general of the International Air Transport Association, told the BBC he believes summer holiday plans should be safe, but that rising jet fuel prices will have a longer-term impact on the price of flights going up.
Similarly a spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) told Condé Nast Traveller that ABTA is “keen to assure people that travel is still going ahead, and holidaymakers are getting away on their trips.”
He added, “We remain in close contact with airline bodies, who are not currently seeing disruption to jet fuel supply and Airlines UK the body that represents airlines has recently confirmed that they do not expect to see any fuel shortages over the summer.”
When it comes to the impact of the new EES system, experts were less optimistic. The ABTA spokesperson advised that travellers should be aware “that they will have a different experience at passport control with the Entry/Exit System (EES) in operation across participating European countries”, recommending people to “give themselves plenty of time to go through passport control, as it is likely to take longer”.
