Industry insiders and EU experts issued the warning after Brussels confirmed its long-delayed Entry Exit System (EES) would start being rolled out from 12 October.
Higher food prices are also a concern if freight traffic is delayed at Dover – for example, when bus-loads of youngsters on school trips will be required to input their details.
The new rules mean Britons travelling to the EU will need to physically input fingerprints, photographs and other information at the UK’s border in the bloc as part of a new digital system designed to replace the manual stamping of passports on arrival and departure. Children under the age of 12 will not need to provide fingerprints.
British ports like Dover, the Eurostar terminal in London and the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone have had a year to prepare for the plans as well as £3.5m each from the Government, and do not expect “major” impacts on holidaymakers.
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There are also concerns that any hitches at ports such as Dover could have knock-on delays on freight traffic that could lead to produce bound for British supermarkets spoiling, or EU companies even pulling out from exporting food to Britain.
The Government, however, refused to release the new figure, citing commercial sensitivity.
A Eurotunnel freight train arrives on the platform at the terminal at Folkestone (Photo: Glyn KirkK/AFP)
For a car of three, they expect that inputting the necessary data will add only five minutes to journey time, and the expanded terminal means more people can go through the port at once, meaning the trains can run on the same timetable.
Travellers to Greek islands and south of France could face delays
There are particular concerns about small airports that are quiet for much of the year but experience booms in seasonal traffic, for example during school holidays, such as those in the Greek islands or south of France.
And while an app that would allow passengers to provide some information for EES before arriving at a border crossing is set to be launched this year, airports in France, the Netherlands and Italy will not begin pilots of the app until 2026.
Menon, director of the UK In A Changing Europe think-tank, said: “There will be all sorts of teething problems but these should not obscure the fact that there will be genuine problems as well.
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“And you can expect it to cause chaos at peak times such as school holidays.
“Brexit was basically about making it harder, more cumbersome and more expensive to do business between us and the EU and this is part of it.”
Josh Fenton, policy manager on borders, said: “Credit where credit’s due, the port of Dover has invested serious sums of money.
“So there’s going to be differentiation between the freight and the tourists, but it’s still going to make certain times of the year quite complex.”
New rules could also impact food inflation
“So what does that mean? It means that there would be disruption around the local road network in Kent. It could mean that if there was anything that we were exporting from the UK to the EU, that produce could be spoiled, or if it’s not spoiled, it’s definitely reduced the shelf life, which reduces its value.
“It also could mean that, because logistics operates on a margin of 2.5 per cent roughly, that added complexity of [drivers] sitting idle, or added queues, or, running out of driver’s hours and those sorts of things, that then essentially means that costs cannot always be absorbed, and therefore, on certain occasions, [the costs] will have to be passed on, which then leads to food inflation.”
“Here in the UK we will be ready and at this stage the BPA is not expecting major direct impacts at our ports,” a spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, which helps prepare the area for, and respond to disruption, said: “KMRF partners – including central Government departments, emergency services and local authorities – continue to work hard to ensure we are prepared for the new EU border processes.”
“Thanks to the phased rollout of EES, and recent investments in infrastructure at the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel, the risk of delays has been significantly reduced.”
“With the progressive start of operations of the EES, Member States will start introducing the EES gradually over a period of six months. This will allow travellers, border authorities and the transport industry more time to adjust to the new procedures.
“As the launch date approaches, travellers can expect information campaigns and awareness-raising activities at border crossing points, including airports across the EU.”
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