Chaos and Control: Taking back control part 1

Kastam"Kastam" is licensed under CC0 1.0

For those sitting out European holidays overseas at the moment as either the places you want to visit have quarantine or you'll have to quarantine on your return, there will be a little surprise in store.

Travelling now as a third country, you'll find your British Passport doesn't get you as far (or as quickly) to your destination that it once did. And that's not due to the Covid checks.

While passport control will take less than a minute to check your certified Covid test result, what will take longer is the manual entry of your passport details into systems. What used to be a relatively quick check and waive through now takes so much longer. 

Arriving at Bari airport last week on a flight barely two-thirds full, we had to wait almost an hour. Covid checks contributed to some of the delays as people haggled over their test results - or lack of them). But the most significant delay was the need to type everyone's passport details manually into the system. And then check identity. And then ask what's the purpose of the visit. It may come as a surprise that British exceptionalism only gets you so far when your destination doesn't have the machine to read passports. 

It doesn't seem like much, but when flying returns to average volumes, every destination will feel like an arrival at Heathrow Terminal Three. Hot, stuffy and long. Albeit without the tacky carpet. 

And then, once you pick up your luggage, be prepared to stop to have it scanned for those now illicit ham sandwiches. Of course, you may also have to answer how much cash you're carrying on you. But in the days of electronic payments, you may be embarrassed to say very little. 

It's all about taking back control. Here's hoping those benefits are worth it… Five years on so far, all I can see is delays so far…  

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