City of London urges Swiss airports to give UK travellers e-gate access

Entry queues in airports such as Zurich have frustrated UK visitors, particularly during busy periods such as the ski season and the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

City of London officials are pressing Switzerland to allow UK travellers to use automated passport gates to end the long airport queues that have become a regular gripe for executives and tourists.

UK travellers must join manual passport queues at Swiss airports, unlike Swiss and EU nationals who can use automated gates, reflecting Britain’s post-Brexit status outside the Schengen travel area. The Swiss can use automated gates on arrival in the UK.

Entry queues in airports such as Zurich have frustrated UK visitors, particularly during busy periods such as the ski season and the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.

Chris Hayward, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, said the issue had been raised in discussions about smoothing cross-border activity and was “an important ‘nice to have’.”

“If we really want to maximise those flows between the two countries, we need to make ease of access for business as quick as possible,” he told the FT during a trip to Switzerland to promote deeper economic links with the UK.

Swiss officials have indicated the issue is “complicated”, citing technical and legal constraints linked to border arrangements, according to Hayward.

The migration office for the Swiss federal justice and police ministry said extending access would require “technical, infrastructural and operational” changes, noting that non-EU travellers are now subject to additional border requirements under newer schemes such as the bloc’s entry and exit system, which introduces biometric checks.

The talks come as the UK and Switzerland seek to build momentum behind a landmark financial services agreement, which came into force in January — a deal Hayward described as “one of the few good things to come out of Brexit”.

The Berne Financial Services Agreement allows businesses in each country to serve clients across borders without setting up a physical presence.

Swiss wealth managers can now access UK clients without establishing a London office, while British insurers can serve Swiss corporate clients on a similar cross-border basis. The agreement relies on a high degree of trust between regulators, allowing firms to operate largely under the supervision of their domestic watchdog.

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“It’s market access both ways,” Hayward said. “There’s a real opportunity at a much cheaper entry-level cost.”

Early uptake has been gradual. The registers held by the regulators list nine insurance firms providing services into Switzerland from the UK and 12 private banks or wealth managers providing services from Switzerland into the UK. It takes about three months or less to get approval.

The pact is being seen as a test case for co-operation between two of Europe’s largest financial centres operating outside the EU framework.

It could also be a blueprint for other countries, said Hayward. “I would say it’s one of the few good things to come out of Brexit,” he added. “It shows [how] . . . countries can work one-on-one together.”

Alongside the financial services deal, the UK and Switzerland are negotiating an updated free trade agreement, which officials hope to conclude later this year and which is expected to include provisions on data sharing and financial services.

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