KM Malta Airlines Executive Chairman David Curmi warned of serious congestion at the Malta International Airport as a result of the EU’s new entry-exit system (EES).
Mr Curmi tells WhosWho.mt that passenger processing times at Immigration are currently taking between three to four minutes, which is way beyond the 70 second average published by the European Commission when the EES was launched this month.
“There are times were serious congestion is reported at Immigration,” he said.
"As traffic levels increase to peak levels in Summer, the system will simply not cope, with the limited space at the airport not able to accommodate very long queues.”
Ryanair has told Times of Malta that it could redirect capacity from Malta to other Mediterranean destinations if border check delays don’t improve.
However, Malta’s national airline has also warned the airport that it won’t accept a situation where its operations are disrupted as a result of congestion at the immigration hall.
“As an airline we have already advised the airport that we will not accept a situation where the airline would be asked not to disembark passengers due to Immigration hall congestion,” Mr Curmi said.
"Such an eventuality would have a serious impact on turnarounds and the airline’s schedules. Nor will departing flights be delayed because passengers are stuck in long queues at Immigration.”
“Most of the routes operated from Malta by KM Malta Airlines act as feeder traffic for connecting flights through its network of interline and codeshare agreements and any delay will lead to passengers missing their flights.”
He added that the European Court of Justice recently decided that, in such cases, the airline would become liable for any passengers missing their flights even if the flight was delayed to avoid other passengers missing their flight due to shortcomings at the airport.
“In this regard, KM Malta Airlines looks forward to being given reassurance that Immigration will be fully staffed at all times and that passenger processing will improve significantly to the point where it will be able to cope with peak Summer traffic,” he said.
“We also expect a degree of flexibility or relief whereby the system might have to be suspended whenever there is serious congestion.”
The EES requires non-EU citizens to register their biometric information, including face scans and fingerprints, and have them checked whenever they cross a Schengen border.
It has been phased in since October but formally launched this month, with a chaotic opening reported across a number of airports. Some passengers who were due to fly from Milan to Manchester even had to be left behind due to border check problems.
Greece has suspended border checks for British tourists in an attempt to reduce airport congestion.
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