TL;DR
- Around 2.2 million British holidaymakers are heading abroad this bank-holiday weekend, Friday to Monday, most of them Europe-bound.
- The EU’s EES has been in full force since April, and some crossings have seen longer queues during the rollout.
- EES means non-EU travellers register, get photographed, and give fingerprints on arrival into the Schengen area.
- ABTA expects Spain to be the top pick this weekend, with strong demand for Greece, Portugal, Italy and Turkey too.
- Greece has signalled it won’t add the extra biometric checks for UK nationals… one to keep in your back pocket.
- Your job this weekend is timing and reassurance, not panic. A short, friendly pre-departure note does most of the work.
What’s Happening at the Border
If your clients are among the crowds flying out this weekend, you’re already the calm voice in their group chat. Around 2.2 million British holidaymakers are expected to head abroad over the bank-holiday weekend, Friday to Monday, most of them bound for Europe now that schools have broken up for summer.
The EU’s Entry/Exit System, better known as EES, has been in full force since April, and some passengers have felt the friction. A few have missed flights, and others have queued for a couple of hours at the busier crossing points during the rollout. Teething problems, in other words, arriving at exactly the moment the summer rush peaks.
A Closer Look
So what is EES asking of your clients? On arrival into the Schengen area, non-EU citizens now register their details, have their photograph taken, and give fingerprints. It launched last year and stepped up to full operation this spring, which is why passport control can move slower than the old stamp everyone was used to. The first pass through the new system is the one that tends to take the time, so a client’s first EES crossing is where the buffer matters most.
Good news? It won’t be the same picture everywhere. Greece has indicated it won’t impose the additional biometric checks on UK nationals, who make up the majority of a big share of its visitors. That’s worth keeping in your back pocket for anyone feeling nervous about a Greek island transfer this weekend.
The Agent Angle
Here’s where you come in. The most useful thing you can hand a client right now is a realistic sense of timing… arrive early, build in a buffer, and treat passport control as a step that might take longer than last summer. ABTA expects Spain to be the main draw this weekend, with strong demand for Greece, Portugal, Italy and Turkey too, so plenty of your bookings will touch a busy EES desk.
As ABTA’s chief executive Mark Tanzer put it, passengers should leave plenty of time for their journey, noting that “for many heading overseas, this will be the first experience of EES, and for some, though not all, it may take longer than usual to get through passport control.” That’s a line worth borrowing for your own pre-departure messages… it sets expectations without alarming anyone.
For Client Chats
None of this changes the holiday waiting on the other side, and that’s the note to leave clients on. I know this weekend is your inbox pinging, not only an industry headline, so keep it simple… a friendly heads-up about timing, a reminder to have documents ready, and your steady reassurance that a slightly longer queue is the only surprise in store. That’s the kind of prep clients remember you for.
