Professionals are demanding compensation from the French Government, whose inability to deliver the high-tech passports on time has resulted in a 30 per cent reduction in trans-atlantic bookings.

Business travel as well as tourism has been plunged into chaos as thousands of French people have been told that they will have to wait three months before travelling to the US.

Airlines say that they are losing ten of millions of euros in custom, while tour operators say their total losses in France and America could reach €500 million.

The fiasco has forced French executives to seek visas with a desperation reminiscent of Gérard Depardieu’s in the 1991 film, Green Card. Some have simply abandoned travel plans.

The delays come after Washington’s demand for biometric passports as part of America’s anti-terrorism measures.

The US says that all passports issued after October 26, 2005, must contain a digital photograph of the holder, who otherwise will need a visa. Those passports issued after October 26 this year must also contain a microchip.

In Britain, digital photographs have been included since 2003 and the Government says that it is on course to deliver microchips for this autumn.

However, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, began the modernisation process only last summer — and then became embroiled in a typically long-running Gallic row.

M Sarkozy initially gave a contract for biometric passports to a private firm, François-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire. However, unions at the Imprimerie Nationale, the state-owned printer founded by Cardinal de Richelieu in 1640, contested the move in an eight-month court battle that ended with defeat for the minister.

M Sarkozy has now scrapped the deal with Oberthur and has asked the Imprimerie Nationale to produce the new passports. However, none will be ready before next month. As a result of the blunders, the four million French people whose passports have expired since October are required to seek a visa if they are to go to the US.

About 24,000 have done so, and the US Consulate in Paris is overwhelmed. Last week, the earliest date for a consulate appointment was June 20.

Until then, there is no hope of a visa and therefore no way of travelling directly to the US for those whose passports have expired. Tens of thousands of business and tourist travellers have cancelled trips and the economic harm is considerable.

Tourism industry experts alone estimate losses in France and the US at €208 million, so far. René-Marc Chikli, chairman of the French Association of Tour Operators, said: “What has happened is unacceptable. It’s meant lost sales for tour operators, travel agents, airlines and others. Everyone is going to do their calculations and ask for compensation from the Government.”

Counting the cost

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