Qatar Airways adds 11 weekly London flights

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• Brian P says:

  2 Mar2 March 07:34

  I think that’s optimistic!

  Everytime i go to the US I use the US citizen line, I’m neither a US citizen, not a green card holder. You’ll find many groups do not fit neatly in your segmentation.

  Besides after ETIAS there is no reason that UKC won’t be able to use e-gates, then they’ll be in front of you again in the queue!

  • NFH says:

    2 Mar2 March 07:41

    ETIAS has nothing to do with e-gates. If you’re referring to EES, then EES e-gates will have different functionality (fingerprints and photographs) from the existing e-gates for EEA citizens.

    Regarding your US analogy, yes, some EU airports such as Madrid are particularly lenient towards British citizens using their manned EU immigration lanes. But with EES, this will no longer be possible because of the fingerprinting and photographing requirement for non-EEA citizens.

    • Brian P says:

      2 Mar2 March 08:08

      the finger prints are taken with ETIAS to check you aren’t a criminal and check against europol etc… they are then stored against your passport.

      they are not being used to check you who you are on your passport to allow entry.

      given 95% traffic after the initial registration from the UK will be return visitors, it’s unlikely you would build an egate with that functionality, when it’s not going to be used.

      much more likely to have a few registration desks or register in alternative location.

      this is my understanding, unless you have a source referring to separate egates?

      • NFH says:

        2 Mar2 March 08:13

        No, that’s inorrect. ETIAS has nothing to do with fingerprints. EES, which has a different (probably earlier) implementation date from ETIAS, requires fingerprints.

• can says:

  2 Mar2 March 08:17

  How long do you think it will take the UK to go back to EU or EEA?

  • yorkieflyer says:

    2 Mar2 March 08:25

    Why would they want their quarrelsome neighbour back?

    • can says:

      2 Mar2 March 08:33

      it’s still the second biggest market in Europe

  • Harry T says:

    2 Mar2 March 08:54

    At least two general election cycles before customs Union and single market.

    • Can says:

      2 Mar2 March 10:13

      That’s what I think, too. Remember EU is evolving, too. So who knows how the new EU will be like in a decade or two

    • TGLoyalty says:

      2 Mar2 March 23:08

      Won’t ever happen again because the terms will never be what they were ie Vetos etc

  • Charles Martel says:

    2 Mar2 March 09:19

    I voted remain and would like to see us rejoin on our old terms, however, the current rules would require us to join the Eurozone and Schengen of which the latter might be a personal red line for my vote. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner in my mind.

    • dougzz99 says:

      2 Mar2 March 09:33

      This highlights the UK/EU problem. The other member states agree to things they have no intention of implementing, we took it all too seriously. Poland and the Euro for example.

      • RussellH says:

        2 Mar2 March 13:19

        More “British Exceptionalism”.
        Poland has, in its way, a similar problem to us. They used to have a sensible government who signed the agreements, then they got a bunch of headbangers just as bad as the English and NI ones who want to renege on the agreements.

    • Can says:

      2 Mar2 March 10:15

      I am less hopeful about the future of Schengen with the current (and future) refugee crises. The recent capsized boat off the coast of Italy is a good example. It sailed off the coast of Turkey! How it managed to sail all the way to Italy without being stopped is a good way to characterise the problem. You can’t have Schengen when your border is Turkey

    • RussellH says:

      2 Mar2 March 13:16

      I sincerely wish that enough citizens of this country finally grow up and accept that we are not special. If the rest of our part of the world wants a single travel area and currency, we should accept it

      I WANT to be part of Schengen and be able to leave my passport behind (they fall out of my pockets and get lost). I have a national ID card for the very occasional ID check within Schengen and I am completely fed up to the back teeth with our useless currency. I WANT the Euro (as did my late parents).

  • TimM says:

    2 Mar2 March 09:28

    The mistake was in the name ‘European’ – it should have been ‘World’. Then any state globally could have adopted the same standards and lowered their borders. ETIAS is a retrograde, ‘little Europe’ step – forever looking inwards and up their own bottoms.

    • John says:

      2 Mar2 March 09:32

      But “little Europe” is precisely what the EU is (regardless of whether the UK is, or wants to be, “little Britain”).

• can says:

  2 Mar2 March 08:32

  it is still the second biggest market in Europe

  • Flyin says:

    2 Mar2 March 09:54

    But if it drags down progress and market development it’s of no benefit. This is very similar to the argument pre-brexit of “we’re a massive market they’ll give us whatever we want”

    • Can says:

      2 Mar2 March 10:16

      No and no. The recent f.k up in Britain is political not EU’s doing. And I think it is fair to mention that UK is a big market. It is a fact and can be a bargaining chip in the future. Why not?

• MrHandBaggageOnly says:

  2 Mar2 March 09:03

  We were in Poland at the weekend flying in and out of Poznan. We were all required to have our pictures taken (inbound and outbound) at Passport control, which did slow things down quite a bit. This was new to me and didn’t happen last October when travelling into Krakow and out of Gdansk, (nor Warsaw in August). There was no explanation as to why, and also no mention of fingerprints. Does anybody know what the photos were for e.g. system testing etc.?

  • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

    6 Mar6 March 11:38

    Thank you for this. Much appreciated.

• Paul says:

  2 Mar2 March 09:07

  Set up CONVENIENT “EU check points” around the UK – by which you mean convenient for London.

  • dougzz99 says:

    2 Mar2 March 09:33

    Yes.

  • Can says:

    2 Mar2 March 10:17

    Of course

• Charles Martel says:

  2 Mar2 March 09:15

  I’d be in favour of enrolment centres for biometric collection, at least at major ports so people arriving early could do it on departure rather than get in longer queues on arrival. Many savvy, eligible travellers go out of their way to enrol in TSA/Global Entry programmes for an easier passage through border control – I don’t see why they wouldn’t do the same for the EU.

  Another solution might be a soft roll out with ETIAS introduced as a mandatory requirement and EES/biometric enrolment enforced randomly to the passenger (but organised around lighter traffic periods at the border). Over around 18 months you’d probably pick up a significant percentage of travellers and it might be better to get 30% in 2023, building to 60% by 2024 than start from scratch in 2024.

• Boon says:

  2 Mar2 March 09:22

  Anyone know when the reward seats availability for the new Qatar flights will be loaded?

• vlcnc says:

  2 Mar2 March 10:03

  I have to say this whole system of EES part is needlessly complicated. Passport stamps work and how it is done in every part of the world. Another thing to make travel laboured and hard work…

  • HH says:

    2 Mar2 March 11:54

    Hard disagree. Cross-border travel between Europe and neighbouring states is way more common and frequent than between countries in other continents.

    My passport was issued in summer 2019 and by this summer I will have only 6 empty pages left… If it weren’t for Covid, I’d be on my second or third passport by now. 80% of the space is taken up by Schengen stamps – this isn’t sustainable.

    • Chris says:

      2 Mar2 March 15:42

      Just a FYI, my understanding is at a Schengen board the procedure when presented with a GB passport with no further space for stamps is to attach a special sheet to the passport.

      If you are concerned about filling your passport then worth making an enquiry future visits to see if you can start using it early to prevent using the remaining 6 pages.

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