{"id":18431,"date":"2026-05-07T06:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18431\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:41:16","slug":"tv-travel-expert-simon-calder-gives-spain-portugal-italy-summer-rule-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18431\/","title":{"rendered":"TV travel expert Simon Calder gives Spain, Portugal, Italy summer rule update"},"content":{"rendered":"

He explained that it’s possible those countries could make change after Greece decided to alter border checks<\/p>\n

14:42, 06 May 2026Updated 07:02, 07 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

Travel expert Simon Calder spoke out about potential changes in EU border rules this summer(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

TV holiday expert Simon Calder has said that it\u2019s possible travellers could see major changes this summer – as the potential for key countries loved by UK holidaymakers to \u2018switch off\u2019 a controversial new border system which has caused chaos. The EU Entry\/Exit System (EES) is an automated IT system was implemented April 10, 2026.<\/p>\n

It replaces manual passport stamping for non-EU nationals, including UK citizens, entering the Schengen Area for short stays. It records biometric data – fingerprints and photo – at border checkpoints, applying to 90-day, visa-free, or short-stay visa travel.<\/p>\n

Reports have shown that it\u2019s caused chaos – with three and four hour queues<\/a> and in some cases people have missed flights due to delays. Mr Calder, who appears on BBC Breakfast and Good Morning Britain, explained that a recent decision by Greece to suspend the system – without any repercussions from EU authorities – could have a big impact on other hotspots popular with UK travellers – like Spain, Portugal and Italy.<\/p>\n

He said in a blog: \u201cIt\u2019s over two weeks since the Greek government<\/a> said, \u2018Ah, we\u2019re not going to bother with all those biometric things for the British holiday makers who are coming over. There\u2019s loads of them. We\u2019d rather they had a nice easy time at the airport and got to the beach.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018Well, they\u2019ll never get away with that. There\u2019s nothing in the rules for the EU entry exit system that allows them to do it.\u2019 But it seems they have, and I think that will encourage other governments, perhaps Portugal, Italy, Spain to say, \u2018We\u2019re not going to bother either. Let\u2019s stagger through to the end of summer and perhaps take another look at the digital border scheme in the autumn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

British holiday makers to Europe this summer face \u2018frontier roulette\u2019<\/a> he said: \u201cYou simply don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. It might be that they\u2019ll want the four fingerprints from your right hand and a facial biometric and that you will be asked to do that multiple times. Or they could just say, \u2018Look, we\u2019ll just have a Look at your passport, skim off the important details, and we\u2019ll call that quits\u2019. All you can do is hope for the best, be prepared for delays and disruption, and do what you\u2019re told. Ryanair is among the many transport companies which are calling for the entry exit system to be suspended for the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that while some places are doing it really well, many others are having a tough time. And it\u2019s ultimately British holiday makers who are going to suffer more than anyone else. So, it wouldn\u2019t surprise me at all if we get an announcement really quite soon from Brussels saying, \u2018Hi, all right, we\u2019re going to give up for now, but we\u2019ll have another crack in the autumn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that in the month since the EES was introduced it\u2019s not gone very well: \u201cIt\u2019s nearly a month since we were told the entry exit system is working at all frontiers right across the continent and it\u2019s all going to be great. Well, it certainly hasn\u2019t been. We\u2019ve seen people missing planes because the outbound cues to get your fingerprints done and your facial biometric have simply taken too long. There\u2019s an awful lot of time being wasted trying to comply with the rules and all the evidence I\u2019m seeing is that the best thing that could happen in line with what lots of travel companies are asking for is oh just suspend the whole thing and have another look in the autumn when it\u2019s quieter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key thing to remember as a British holiday maker to Europe is that you face frontier roulette. You\u2019ve got no idea whether the frontier officials will demand your fingerprints from your right hand and your facial biometrics or they might just say we\u2019re going to skim the important details from your passport and we\u2019ll be happy with that. The whole system seems to be unravelling with individual countries, notably Greece saying we\u2019re not doing this anymore. And I think quite it soon. Europe is going to have to say it\u2019s not actually working. We\u2019re going to have another go. For now, let\u2019s just relax things over the summer. But there\u2019s simply no guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n

UK airlines respond to concerns over jet fuel shortage<\/p>\n

Last month Ryanair announced passengers who need to use its airport check-in or bag-drop services will be required to finish the process 20 minutes earlier. The airline announced it will close the services an hour before the scheduled departure of a flight \u2013 compared with 40 minutes currently \u2013 to give passengers more time to get through security and passport checks.<\/p>\n

This will reduce the \u201cvery small number of passengers\u201d who miss their flight while stuck in queues, the carrier added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He explained that it’s possible those countries could make change after Greece decided to alter border checks 14:42,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[708,10194,333,10195,602,17,357],"class_list":{"0":"post-18431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-air-travel","9":"tag-bbc-breakfast","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-good-morning-britain","12":"tag-ryanair","13":"tag-spain","14":"tag-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}