Autumn Travel – Day 49 To London from Milan

I flew to London Heathrow from Linate Airport in Milan.

Linate is at the eastern end of the M4 underground line and doesn’t appear to be used much by travellers.

I’m writing this post mainly because of the Entry / Exit System for the Schengen area, administered by the EU. Ireland and Cyprus do not use EES.

I registered for the EES when I entered the Schengen area on 7th September at Geneva. This digital registration records the name, travel document type, biometric data (fingerprints and a facial image), and the date and place of entry. When I arrived at Linate to exit the Schengen area, I was expecting to have to scan my passport and that would be it, because the system would know that I’d already registered for EES. However, this was not the case.

When I scanned my passport, the machine took a facial image and no fingerprints. I was informed I had to stand in a queue, along with 40-50 other people to have my passport checked by the one customs officer on duty. This was taking around two minutes per person.

Therefore, my advice to you is if you are exiting the Schengen area at Linate, make sure you leave at least sixty minutes for the exit procedure at this airport i.e. arrive at customs 60-75 minutes before your scheduled departure.