The new European Union entry/exit system introduced in April may have enhanced border security, but it has also meant bigger delays for travelers at the bloc’s airports – and Greece is no exception.
“The feta I tried in the airport lounge was amazing, maybe the best I’ve ever had,” Tanisha from the United States recently told Kathimerini of her experience at Athens International Airport. “If I had to mention one bad thing, though, it would be the long wait at passport control. It took nearly two and a half hours to get through.”
Before the more rigorous security checks – which include fingerprinting and photographing travelers from non-Schengen countries, among other measures – went into force across the bloc on April 10, passengers cleared passport control in around 20 seconds on average. That has now gone up to a minute and a half, meaning that Tanisha’s experience was in no way unusual, though the length of the delay depends on the time of day.
“If it’s between noon and 2 p.m. when we have 15 airplanes coming in from countries outside the Schengen zone, then pressure cannot be avoided,” sources in the transport sector tell Kathimerini, commenting on the situation at Greece’s biggest airport.
