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23 August 2017

Open letter sent to EU Council of Ministers regarding Border Restrictions

The recently implemented EU 458/2017 putting additional border restrictions on schengen borders has put a strain on European air carriers and the efficiency of the aviation system in Europe. 

IATA Europe, collaborating with other regional associations, has sent an open letter to the EU Council of Ministers calling on governments to bolster staffing and reconsider logistics for the recently implemented EU 458/2017. 

Specifically, the letter invites EU Member States to adopt the following measures

  1. In accordance with Article 15 of the Schengen Border Code, all Member States shall deploy the necessary number of border officers and consider further deployment of automated border control gates, including at secondary airports where non-Schengen traffic is significant 
  2. Member States like Spain and France which are collecting Advance Passenger Information (API) shall make use of the provisions set out in Article 8 paragraph 2E of Regulation EU 458/2017, which were specifically added to allow for more efficient checks. The advance verification on the basis of API data could also speed up controls for EU passengers on inbound flights 

Reinforcing the industry's position Rafael Schvartzman, IATA Regional Vice President Europe said "we support additional border checks if governments believe this improves the security of Europe's citizens. But we warned this needed more resources to prevent delays, and governments have failed to heed those warnings. The number of delayed flights due to border control issues is up 97%...this is totally unacceptable". "The answer is for more border control officers to be deployed and more automatic gates to be operational" he added. 

Read the full letter sent to the EU Council of Ministers (pdf) 

 

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