Big Brother requires a plethora of forms for European travel

Government bureaucracy remains constant in spite of the pandemic. Passengers flying to European destinations now have a plethora of forms to fill in before taking a flight.

Some of these appear to be more relevant than others and the fact they are physical forms means a real back to the future experience. It’s not 2020 anymore, it’s 1984!

The Useless Form

Aer Lingus have a web page which states the country by country travel requirements right now. I assume other airlines have something similar and it’s real eye opener, showing which Governments require which forms to be completed for travel.

Asking a passenger to swear they have no symptoms and have had no contact with someone who has the virus seems to be a waste of time. Many people are asymptomatic, so what if you don’t know? Those who want to travel might just sign off that they’re fine so they can travel. Is there a penalty for lying? It all seems a bit useless to me.

Another In The Plethora Of Forms

A form I completely agree with is the passenger locator form. This is where you fill in all your relevant details so that the authorities can track you down if they need to test you or put you into quarantine.

Naturally this should be filled in, though it would be nicer to have an online version to complete. Having to muck around with paper in 2020 is so very backwards.

Overall Thoughts

So, it’s a pandemic plethora of forms to complete, especially when travelling to more than one country in quick succession as you might do on a necessary business trip. It could be a good time to start a collection of airline pens!

A friend of mine recently took a flight from the Netherlands to France. KLM duly handed him his form and an airline pen, and he completed it. On arrival in Nice, nobody collected the form. As a Frenchman, he laughed it off and said, “typical France!”. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at that one.

Have you had cause to travel within Europe recently? Have you had to complete forms for every country? Are any online? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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