General Discussion
This makes the 1hour and 50 minutes I was sat on a plane (it having missed its take off slot due to delays) at Bristol Airport the other week followed by the 1 hour sat on a plane at Palma de Mallorca airport when coming back pale into insignificance.
And bear in mind that such delays are more than likely to increase when we have left the EU.
Air travel has always been beset by delays even before we joined the EEC in the 70s. And how do you know that delays are more than likely to increase after we have left the EU, or is that just another Brexit scare story? I'm not at all surprised this came from The Independent, all it does these days is run countless anti-Brexit articles.
Perhaps you should consider having a staycation? This country has so much to offer, and it would save you sitting in an aircraft on the tarmac going nowhere.
More folk want to holliday outside of the UK so it stands to reason that the more who want to fly the more delays will happen and burneside you are so right the UK has so many great places to visit. Take a trip to Gairlock miles of sand amazing mountain scenery and wildlife from Eagles to Humpback Whales crystal clear water friendly people and great food and not a deck chair in sight, and of course irun bru.
I think I said something about sunnier climes.
A hot sunny period in this country is so unusual that it invariably becomes a news story.
Why do I believe that such delays will increase after we leave the EU? - well, we won't be EU citizens for a start so going through passport control and customs won't necessarily be as easy as it is now, when going to EU countries. So if it is busy and hectic now - what might it be like then?
Costa del Sol anyone?
Going through passport control shouldnt be easy thats one of the reasons we voted to leave every person entering any country should be very carefully scrutinised. I remember the days when if you drove across Europe you had to show your passport at every border and have your car checked before entering that country and thats how it should still be.
Temperatures today (source the i newspaper - cue response from a certain someone.......)
Plymouth/Exeter/Bristol - 17/18 C Fair with outbreaks of rain
Athens - 33 C and Sunny
Barcelona - 30 C and Sunny
Lisbon - 26 C and Sunny
Madrid - 34 C and Sunny
Nice - 27 C and Sunny
Palma (Majorca) - 34 C and Sunny
Rome - 30C and Sunny
Tenerife - 26 C and Sunny
The UK very wisely did not join up to the Schengen Agreement, so surely you still have to show your passport when visiting to the Costa del Sol?
Yes of course you have to show your passport.
My point is that there may well be longer delays if, once we are no longer EU citizens, the passport control officers have to check out our passports that bit more.
Still, us Brits love to queue ............
Haven't you heard Lynne, the i was sold off to Johnston Press last year after plummeting sales, and has no link to The Independent. Quite why anybody would want to buy such a failing newspaper is beyond me.
And a passport check is a passport check, I don't see why that should take any longer after March 2019.
Because EU citizens will be subject to one kind of check and non EU citizens to another?
Same as when we come back into this country UK and EU citizens go one way and non EU/UK go another - and then get grilled as to why they are coming into this country. Might only be a light grilling but it takes longer for those persons to get through passport control.
Witnessed that very thing at Bristol airport when coming back from Majorca the other week.
And my point is everyone should have a serious grilling when entering any country especially the UK.
Believe it or not, I used to take holidays in Greece and Spain long before they became part of the EU, I didn't find it irksome getting through passport control. And with the state the world is in today I would say the more stringent the checks, the better.
I don't necessarily have a problem with more stringent checks at passport control. The point I am making is that with the number of people who travel abroad these days, such checks will lead to queues. (or longer queues than travellers already experience.)
So Brits travelling to EU countries will be subject to greater passport control, and thus longer queues, than EU citizens.
I gather that today's Mail is leading with this issue and is up in arms about the inconvenience being caused to those travelling into the EU zone from outside the Schengen free movement area.
ie the Brits going on holiday to sunnier climes in southern Europe.
But is it only the Brits? I ask because when going through passport control to get into Majorca this year which queue you went in wasn't based on whether or not you were travelling from a Schengen free movement country but whether or not you had an EU passport - which of course we Brits do (for the moment).
And I have to smile - so the EU introduces greater security for getting in and out of the EU and travelling around the EU and the likes of The Mail goes into high dudgeon.
Really, there's just no pleasing some people!
for info - click on this link to see which European countries are in the Schengen area https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-countries-list/
The words stable door/horse/bolted spring to mind. It's a bit late in the day to be tightening up security when the borders have been leaking like a sieve for years. And, of course, once somebody has gained entry to a Schengen country they can travel unhindered right across Europe, and end up in Calais to try to gain entry to the UK illegally.
Do you know burnside I had only but a moment ago said to someone "I don''t know where Burneside is - he usually posts a reponse within nanno seconds of my referring to the EU".
What have you been doing all this time? Thinking up what to say in response?