NEWS


DRIVEN TO SUCCEED: Buckingham- based Hays Travel personal travel consultant Lucy Taylor described winning a new electric car at the Travel Weekly Agent Achievement Awards as “completely life-changing” after selling her own vehicle three years ago to fund her business launch. Taylor took home a £25,000 Renault 5 E-Tech at the event, held at the Park Plaza London Westminster Bridge in front of 650-plus guests, after popping a giant balloon filled with confetti, revealing her as the winner alongside the other four finalists. The prize was the culmination of a month-long Newmarket Holidays booking incentive run with Travel Weekly, which drew nearly 2,000 entries. Taylor, who has been car-sharing with her husband since starting out, said she “didn’t think this was going to happen”. i AAAs coverage, pages 10-13


EU states raise ‘serious concern’ at EC refusal to relax EES rules


Ian Taylor


Calls for the European Commission to suspend its Entry/Exit System (EES) have grown as peak summer approaches, with most schools in England and Wales due to close next week. However, the EC continues


to insist the system is operating successfully and suggests queueing is confined to 20 border entry points out of 1,500. Nine European


exposed “significant difficulties”, and described retaining the option to suspend the system – which requires non-EU travellers to register fingerprints and facial images on first entry – as “essential”. An EC spokesperson responded


states, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Portugal, challenged that view last week, calling on the EC to extend provisions to suspend EES registration. In a joint letter to the Commission, they warned: “The scheduled end of the partial suspension mechanism on September 6 is a source of serious concern.” They said full EES


implementation since April had travelweekly.co.uk STORY TOP


by insisting “few member states” were experiencing difficulties. A survey by The Harris Poll UK for Travel Weekly found three out of four UK adults (75%) are aware of the EES and almost half (47%) ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ concerned about delays on arrival in the EU or when crossing the Channel.


This rose to 56% when excluding those unlikely to travel to Europe. One in five (19%) said they were


likely to consider travel to Greece due to it suspending biometric registration for UK visitors. The government announced


£20 million in funding for more passport booths at the Port of Dover


this week to “help reduce queues”. Transport secretary Heidi


Alexander said she and Apostolos Tzitzikostas, EU commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism, had agreed “to work together” to ensure the “smoothest possible EES checks”. Alexander said: “I was reassured the commissioner understood the concerns of holidaymakers.” However, the EC continues


to reject calls to suspend the EES for the summer peak. An EC meeting with aviation leaders, who recently warned of delays of “up to five hours” at EU borders this summer, failed to make progress. Following the meeting, an


EC official acknowledged 20 “difficult spots” but insisted a full EES suspension is “not needed” and “not possible”. The EC at least appears to


recognise the problems will delay the launch of its European Travel Information and Authorisation


System (Etias). This had been planned for October, and would add a €20 fee to the visitor registration process. The start date is “no longer feasible” according to EU-Lisa, the agency responsible for implementing it, although the delay has yet to be confirmed. Abta director of public affairs


Luke Petherbridge said: “It’s frustrating we’re still seeing inconsistencies in how EES is implemented and the use of contingency measures. We expect people to have differing experiences with EES over the coming weeks, in terms of queues and how they’re processed.” He added: “It’s clear the situation


is unlikely to be resolved by the time contingency measures end in early September. We continue to push the Commission to extend these.” The Harris Poll UK surveyed


more than 1,000 UK adults online between July 3 and July 6.


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PICTURES: Emma Blackmore/Steve Dunlop


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