Here is an interesting article from the Guardian where the European Travel industry is calling for the EU to allow some airports to suspend the new system to help with delays.
Call to suspend new EU border system in peak holiday period as planes leave half full
I read that article yesterday and have sympathy for travellers hoping to make scheduled connections to their final destination... As if air travel is not already a source of concern and anxiety due to airline changes/cancellations, strikes, weather etc... I am connecting in a couple of weeks from the US through London-LHR to Nice France. American and codeshare British Air have told me to remain airside at LHR connection terminal 5 to T1 to avoid UK's entry system requirement and go through the EU's EES upon arrival in Nice. I hope i am getting correct information.
Heathrow T1 is closed. Check which terminal you need to depart from and follow the guidelines here
https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/airport-maps/travel-between-terminals
You can stay airside as you are on one ticket.
I need to correct... Just checked my AA & BA information... I will be arriving LHR T3 and connecting to T5 for departure to NCE. Thank you for providing the link for LHR terminal connection information
pj, that is correct. if you clear security, you are technically entering the UK, which means
you would need to pay for an UK entry permit. It would just allow you to transit through
the UK and do nothing for you entering the EU.
So, don't follow signs to the Tube, or Elizabeth Line, or Heathrow Express. These will
all take you outside the secure area of the airport. Find the buses that pick up in the
secure area of T5 and take you to secure area of T3.
Frank II's article about delaying entering Europe means you might have delays exiting
Nice airport, but since that is your final flight destination, less of a problem.
Thank you Shoeflyer, Lin and Frank. I am writing this information down... take BUS at LHR (NOT Tube, Heathrow Express or Elizabeth line) from T3 to T5. I encourage all travellers to check their connection airport's site for any assistance for making connections and rules about the EU's EES border system. It may be changing daily depending on the volume of travellers. Happy travelling.
One important fact was left out PJ...
When you get off the plane at Heathrow, follow the purple "Flight Connections" signs. These will take you to the buses that will take you to Terminal 5, There will be people around to help if you need it.
Do not follow the crowd who are going to passport control.
I am going to present a different point of view. I think it is the inconsistent implementation of EES that has caused much of this mess. Rather than suspending, they should start enforcing. Only then will the system really work. Part of those long lines are caused by countries insisting travelers register every time they enter the Schengen zone because they can’t trust it was really done elsewhere. It was meant to be one and done, allowing the use of egates to speed things up.
Not quite that simple, Carol.
Many airports do not have enough machines or staff to operate the system properly.
There are isssues with the fingerprint scanners - actually with fingers - whch means it can take minutes to scan your fingerprints.
The killer is that, apparently, the systems that read the passport information and the syetms that take the biometric data pass the information through to a centre, where the two systems do not communiocate, hence having do do it more than once!"
I am not going to pretend to understand any of this. I live within the EU and a few weeks ago traveled out of and back into the EU.
Leaving my passport was stamped. Thats all. Coming back the sign on the floor said EU residents and EU passports go right. But because I have a US passport they made me go left. Immigration agent looked at my passport and residency card and stamped my passport ... same as he did for all the other Americans in line. On the other side of the room were a few dozen Pac-Man machines but the screens were all black. Took 10 minutes. Next week I leave again and coming back I have 1 hour in Madrid.
I am driving out of the EU in August. I guess nothing changes with that?
We entered and exited Budapest airport in May. AS my husband was on a mobility sccoter, we were ushered into a special line, no wait, where the chap in the booth scanned our passports, took our photos and we passed our fingers through a scanner.
On exit, same process.
No stamps.
Others in our group had to queue for up to an hour.
Anyone transferred through Frankfurt airport recently?
How was your experience?
I am nervous about this. We have 3 hrs 20 min layover in Frankfurt (Lufthansa) to Venice
