Travellers warn of queues at Greek airports despite pledge to fast-track Brits

Holidaymakers arriving at some popular Greek airports say there are still long queues at passport control, despite Greece suspending the new EU entry checks for Brits.

Greece has opted to scrap biometric border checks for UK arrivals until there are improvements to the new EU-wide system, which was introduced last month.

However, responding to a post on X by travel journalist Simon Calder, several people said they had still experienced long queues at some Greek airports.

One user said they had queued in Corfu for ‘about 30-35 minutes’, even though there were no biometric checks.

The situation appears worse at Zante, where one user said they had queued for 90 minutes. They claimed only two kiosks were staffed by border guards to process passengers from four aircraft, and another user on X said they had waited in line for 2.5 hours at Zante.

They added: “They urgently need to sort as they can’t leave arrivals outside in the forthcoming summer heat.”

Brits are also experiencing queues at Rhodes, according to one user who described it as ‘a nightmare’.

However, one poster said Brits were being fast-tracked at Athens, whereas the queue for passengers from other non-EU countries was ‘huge’.

Elsewhere, some travellers report mixed experiences at airports where EES checks are being carried out. One said there were no queues in Malta, another described Girona in Spain as ‘carnage’, while another claimed EES checks were not being carried out in Pisa in Italy.