Show caption The check-in area at Schiphol airport. Britons could face longer queues at passport control after Brexit. Photograph: EschCollection/Getty Images Brexit Brexit could lead to extra hour’s wait at some EU airports Analysis of passenger flows at Schiphol airport suggests arrivals from UK face delays Daniel Boffey in Luxembourg Fri 12 Oct 2018 11.29 EDT Share on Facebook

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British travellers could face an extra hour’s wait to get through passport control at some European airports after Brexit, according to an assessment of passenger flows at one of the continent’s busiest air hubs.

Officials at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, through which roughly 5m people coming from the UK arrive each year, have said people arriving from the UK can expect considerable delays once they no longer hold an EU passport.

As it stands, Britons spend on average around 25 seconds at the passport control desk at Schiphol. It is estimated this will increase to 40-45 seconds after Brexit due to the need for additional document checks.

With each person taking longer to get through passport control, it could take between 50 minutes and an hour more for a passenger on a busy flight to get through the system and out the other side, Dutch government analysis shared with Het Parool newspaper suggests.

Hans van Kastel, a spokesman at the airport, told Het Parool that the airport was examining how it could reduce delays.

“There is indeed a chance that it will take longer,” he said. “The [police] will have to carry out more operations in the passport control, which can mean something for the speed and the experience of passengers at the airport.”

A spokesman added: “Brexit will [also] have consequences for customs at Schiphol. Customs is recruiting 930 extra employees, a number of which will be stationed at Schiphol for screening passenger items and cargo flights.”

A spokesman for the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, the military police who run the passport control desks, said additional delays were inevitable and it was just a matter of seeking to minimise them.

He said: “This depends on what type of Brexit the UK has. It is too early to know conclusively right now. But after Brexit, people from the UK are from what we call a third country. So they will have to wait longer. There are some extra investigations and controls that need to be done.”

About 5 million Britons a year travel to the Netherlands and approximately half of these transfer at Schiphol to another aircraft. More than 1.2 million people travel to the airport with British Airways.