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EUROPEAN UNION

How many travellers are turned away at European borders because of 90 day limit?

Many Non-EU nationals, including Britons since Brexit, need to make sure they don't go over the 90-day rule in the EU/Schengen area. But how many people are turned away at European borders because they overstayed?

How many travellers are turned away at European borders because of 90 day limit?
How many travellers are turned away from the EU's borders because they have passed the 90 day limit? (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

The 2021 Ironman 70.3 World Champion, UK’s Lucy Charles-Barclay, may not be able to participate in the next race of the season, on the 21st of May in Kraichgau, Germany.

The reason? She has already used 88 of the 90 days she could spend in the Schengen area over a 180-day period, the athlete said on Instagram.

Non-EU travellers, who since Brexit include Brits, have to be aware of the 90-day rule when it comes to visiting the EU and Schengen area.

People can travel without border checks within countries that have signed up to the Schengen Agreement. These include EU members except for Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania. Non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are also part of the Schengen zone.

Non-EU passport holders who are allowed to visit Schengen countries without a visa can stay for maximum 90 days in any 180-day period, regardless of the number of states they go to. This means frequent visitors to EU countries, such as those who own second homes there, need to keep a careful check on how many days they have built up.

READ ALSO: How does the 90-day rule work for the EU/Schengen area?

The 90-day limit is meant for visits only, so people who intend to become residents have to follow different procedures.

Anyone who wants to stay longer than 90 days in every 180 must apply for a national visa for the country they intend to visit.

Passengers wait under panels at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, in the northeastern outskirts of Paris, on March 4, 2023.(Photo by Geoffroy Van der Hasselt / AFP)

If overstayers are caught they will most likely be ordered to leave, fined or even banned from the Schengen zone for a period of time. Since Brexit, these rules also apply to UK citizens, to the frustration of many second home owners in France and Spain.

The European Union plans to introduce a new border system, the EU entry/exit system, that will require biometric data, including facial images and fingerprints of all passengers entering the EU, helping authorities to systematically identify overstayers.

Travellers refused entry over the 90-day rule

Overall, some 141,060 non-EU citizens were refused entry into the EU in 2022 for various reasons, which are explained below.

Overall the largest number of refusals were reported by Poland (23,330), Hungary (15,780), Croatia (11,800) and Ireland (9,240). Ukrainian citizens accounted for the largest number of refusals, as has been the case in recent years.

According to the latest data published by the EU statistical office Eurostat, in 2022 almost 20,000 people (19,290) were refused entry at the Schengen area’s external borders because they has already exceeded the 90-day limit on previous trips.

This figure was a slight rise on the 2019 figure of 17,695. In the 2020 and 2021 the number dropped to around 10,000 travellers refused entry for having passed the 90-day limit, but the drop can be explained by fewer people on the move due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of the 20,000 refused entry in 2022 over the 90-day rule, more than two thirds were stopped at the Polish (7,570) and Hungarian (5,475) borders. Again most of them were from Ukraine as was the case in 2019. It is not clear whether these were recorded before Poland and Hungary opened their borders to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian’s fleeing the Russian invasion in late February.

Among the countries covered by The Local, Italy refused entry to 695 non-EU citizens because of the 90/180 Schengen rule; Germany denied entry to 465; Spain 345; Switzerland 175; France 170; Austria 125; Sweden 40; and Denmark 30, according to data published recently.

Despite the confusion for Britons after Brexit it appears most travellers are at least aware of the 90 day rule given the small number that were refused entry.

Only 195 British citizens were refused entry into European countries in 2022 because of the 90 day rule. Of these, Switzerland rejected 25; Sweden, Austria and Denmark 10 each; France 5. The figure for Spain read “zero”, suggesting Spanish authorities had not made the data available.

For US citizens the number of travellers turned away at the EU borders last year for having already passed the 90-day limit was 90. The numbers were even smaller for Canadians and Australians but this will be likely linked not only to a low number of frequent travellers to the EU from distant countries. In other words if they have passed the 90 day limit they are unlikely to return within the 180 day period.

As for travellers from India, the 90-day rule does not apply to them because they need a visa to enter the Schengen area.

Other reasons non-EU citizens are turned away

Apart from the 90 day rule there are other reasons why non-EU travellers will be turned away at Europe’s borders ranging from whether they are considered to be public threat or an alert has been issued about them to the fact their passport may be out of date or they have no valid visa or residency permit. Officially non-EU visitors could be turned away if they are not considered to have the means to pay for their trip, however the figures show only 10 people were refused entry (all to the Netherlands) for this reason.

READ ALSO: Are UK tourists in Spain really being asked to prove €100 a day?

Whilst most non-EU travellers have been aware of the rules around valid travel documents it appears many Britons have been caught out since Brexit.

Visitors entering Schengen countries must have a document issued in the ten years before the date of entry and valid until three months after the planned departure date. Since Brexit many British travellers, unaware their passports were invalid, have been turned away at airports and ports.

France for example denied access to its territory – and the Schengen area – to 105 UK citizens because they held no valid travel document.

The total for British citizens turned away from European countries because of invalid travel documents was 335, with 40 denied access to Italy and 30 to Switzerland.

In total 1,305 UK nationals were denied entry at the European external borders in 2022 because of reasons ranging from overstays to no valid visa or document, insufficient means of subsistence or being considered a public threat.

France – which has the largest number of arrivals from the UK due to its proximity – recorded the largest number (440), followed by Switzerland (150), Sweden (75), Italy (60), Germany (45), Denmark (40), Austria (15). Data for Norway was not available at the time of publishing.

Sweden, where authorities have come under pressure over their treatment of British residents after Brexit, refused entry to 40 Britons in 2022 who did not have a valid visa or residence permit.

When it comes to other nationalities, some 1,020 American citizens were turned away at Europe’s borders for various reasons in 2022 and the figure for Indian nationals was 2,045. Just 140 Canadians were turned away and 50 Australian nationals.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are flights to and from Switzerland so expensive this summer?

Airline activity to and from Switzerland has almost fully recovered after travel bans during the pandemic, yet prices are soaring. Here’s why.

Why are flights to and from Switzerland so expensive this summer?

If you’ve been searching for flights to or from Switzerland during the summer, you may have noticed that prices are higher compared to previous years. Flight prices have in fact risen by 36 percent compared to pre-pandemic times, according to estimates. 

This trend of soaring prices is not limited to Switzerland alone; it is happening across Europe.

In an interview with Bild am Sonntag, TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel announced that there would be no last-minute offers this summer and that the days of cheap flights are over.

Ebel explained that travellers’ booking habits – namely booking tickets shortly before departure – are likely to lead to a further rise in ticket prices. “Spontaneous bargains will be the absolute exception,” he said.

Ryanair Austria head Andreas Gruber issued similar sentiments, stating that the days of flying almost for free are over. “There will be no more 10-euro tickets,” he said in September 2022. Currently, the cheapest ticket you can book with Ryanair costs 25 euros.

Unfortunately, airfare inflation has continued to rise.

The average price for a Ryanair flight will rise from 40 to 50 euros in the future. Still, the Irish airline expects the number of passengers to grow in the coming months as people start looking for cheaper transportation with the rising cost of living.

Rush to travel

Several factors contribute to these price hikes. The unexpected rush to travel after the pandemic caught the industry off guard and led to chaos at some European airports last summer due to staffing shortages.

Despite the return of passengers, business travellers have not returned in the same numbers as before, partly due to the newfound convenience of virtual meetings. In addition, the slow recovery has impacted the profitability of specific flights, prompting some airlines to discontinue routes altogether.

Fuel costs, which account for approximately one-third of ticket prices, are often cited as a reason for the price increase, even though the price of oil per barrel is falling. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) attributes the price hikes to the rising cost of kerosene, explaining that “high fuel prices, as well as other inflationary cost increases, can impact ticket prices if airlines are unable to absorb or avoid these costs.”

Johan Lundgren, CEO of EasyJet, noted that the ban on flying over Russia has increased travel time by one to two hours for certain Asian destinations, adding to the costs of long-haul flights, according to airlines.

Commercial planes of Swiss air lines, Lufthansa and Spanish low-cost airline Vueling parked on the tarmac of Geneva Airport on May 4th, 2023. (

Commercial planes of Swiss air lines, Lufthansa and Spanish low-cost airline Vueling parked on the tarmac of Geneva Airport on May 4th, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

SWISS prices set to soar

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) announced upcoming summer increases in a Blick interview last year. CEO Dieter Vranckx said that the airline’s sustainability efforts, among other things, are behind the price surge.

Meanwhile, aviation expert Andreas Wittmer from the University of St. Gallen told SRF that “in order to achieve the climate targets set by 2050, the aviation industry must invest – especially in so-called sustainable fuels”.

These investments will then likely result in higher ticket prices.

In line with that, SWISS announced that it has embarked on a pioneering new partnership with luxury Swiss hotel Gstaad Palace earlier this month which will see the latter procure sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for all its business travel on SWISS.

Moreover, SWISS said that it will continue to offer customers very attractive and competitive prices, though it noted that prices in aviation are more dynamic than in most other industries and that the increase in pricing has to do with supply and demand.

To compare: an Economy Light return ticket for a flight leaving Zurich Airport for London Heathrow (LHR) on July 21st (until July 24th) will set you back an average 350 francs and from Geneva Airport to LHR around 240 francs.

Travelling from Zurich (Geneva) to London Gatwick on the same days via easyJet with only hand luggage in tow will still cost you 206 (134) francs.

Though Basel is not serviced by SWISS, you can head to London Gatwick for a cool 158 francs over the same time period.

READ MORE: How SWISS is expanding flight connections this year

But the higher prices are unlikely to put passengers off their summer vacation entirely.

SWISS stated that it still expects to report total available seat-kilometres (ASK) production for 2023 that is as high as 85 per cent of its 2019 level and expects to raise this further in 2024.

SWISS (excluding Edelweiss Air) transported over three million passengers in Q1 of 2023, an increase of over 70 percent on the prior-year period. It also performed more than 27,000 flights, around 47 per cent more than in the first quarter of 2022.

Prices set to relax in 2024

According to Wittmer, the increase in pricing has now seen its peak and prices should begin to relax in 2024 – if only momentarily.

This, he said, is due to several reasons. For one, SWISS is expanding its international long-haul flights this winter from both Zurich and Geneva Airport. The destinations due to see more frequent traffic are Miami (USA), Shanghai (China), Singapore (Singapore) and Cairo (Egypt).

Other airlines are also gradually bringing back their mothballed aircraft, while Airbus and Boeing will also be delivering new aircraft after production problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The IATA even expects overall traveller numbers to reach 4 billion in 2024 (counting multi-sector connecting trips as one passenger) and exceed pre-pandemic levels (103 per cent of the 2019 total).

How can I avoid spending too much money on summer travelling?

Although flights may not be as cheap as before, there are still strategies to keep costs down:

– Booking flights well in advance tends to result in cheaper tickets, as prices increase closer to the flight date. Therefore, if you still need to book your flight, now is the time to do so.

– Avoiding the peak holiday season in July and August can help save money. Instead, consider taking an early summer vacation in June or a later one in late August or early September.

– Check websites like Skyscanner and Google Flights for the cheapest airline options. These platforms can also find cheaper tickets if you’re open to making stopovers instead of flying direct.

– Be flexible with your travel dates. For example, look for midweek departures or consider departing from secondary airports, which may offer lower prices compared to major airports.

– If you’re travelling within Europe, consider rail travel as an alternative to flying. The Austrian train system, operated mainly by state-owned company ÖBB, is known for its efficiency and relatively affordable prices, and is highly regarded in many countries.

By employing these strategies, you can still find ways to manage costs and make your travel plans more affordable despite the current trend of rising airfare prices.

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