Why British passengers flying to mainland Europe should expect very long delays at the airport

Any passengers from the United Kingdom or Ireland heading on trip to mainland Europe over the next few days and weeks should anticipate some heavy delays at the airport.

Following the series of terrorist attacks at European airports, new security regulations were put in place in the Schengen region back in March, but have only been fully enforced in the last few days. The Schengen region is the border-free area that takes up most of mainland Europe but for European passengers who arrive into the region, such as from the UK and Ireland, these new regulations are being put into practice. As we are not from the Schengen region, our arrivals previously were only subjected to visual passport checks, but now each British passenger's passport is put through a worldwide database, which can take two minutes per passenger, upon both arrival and departure. Thomas Reynaert, A4E's managing director - the association that represents carriers such as British Airways, Ryanair and easyJet - told the Telegraph: