Airlines demand EU scrap biometric border checks as 5-hour queues leave flights half-empty
European airlines and airports have told Brussels that the Entry/Exit System is causing waits of up to five hours, warning of a critical point as the summer peak begins.
A new digital border
Since October 2025 the EU has been gradually rolling out the Entry/Exit System (EES), which replaces physical passport stamps with automated biometric registration. Non-EU citizens travelling for short stays in the Schengen area must now provide fingerprints and a photograph on arrival at their destination airport. The system became fully mandatory on 10 April 2026, covering all Schengen states except Cyprus and Ireland, as well as the non-EU Schengen members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Chaos at the gates
With the summer holiday season under way, the industry says the system is breaking down under peak loads. In an open letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) report that wait times at border checkpoints have hit five hours during busy periods.
We have reached a critical point. Passengers have already been forced to queue for long periods outside terminals and on exposed aprons because border checkpoints cannot process arrivals fast enough.
The letter adds that the delays are affecting millions of travellers entering the Schengen area, including families with young children, older people and passengers with reduced mobility.
Half-empty aircraft and lost connections
Airlines and airports describe a mounting operational crisis. Flights are departing with dozens of empty seats because passengers remain trapped in immigration queues at gate closure time. Some aircraft have delayed take-off to wait for stranded travellers; others have simply left without them. The groups warn of lost connections, growing pressure on frontline staff and an unsustainable burden on border authorities.
- Gradual rollout of the Entry/Exit System begins, replacing physical passport stamps with digital biometric registration for non-EU short-stay travellers.
- Full implementation of EES becomes mandatory across the Schengen area.
- Greece suspends EES biometric checks for British travellers until September to avoid summer gridlock.
- Open letter from ACI Europe, A4E and IATA warns of a 'critical point', with five-hour queues and half-empty flights, and demands suspension rights for July and August.
- European Commission responds that most airports are coping well and announces a meeting with industry in coming days.
- Industry deadline for a permanent exceptional-circumstances mechanism that would allow states to suspend EES checks.
The industry’s ultimatum
The three organisations are demanding immediate flexibility. They want EU member states to be allowed to “completely suspend” EES biometric checks in July and August whenever passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border facilities. By September they are also calling for a permanent mechanism that would let national authorities switch off the system in exceptional circumstances. Between July and August alone, European airports expect to handle around 40 million more passengers than during the preceding two months, a volume the signatories say the current infrastructure cannot cope with.
Brussels pushes back
The European Commission acknowledged the pressure but insisted that most airports are managing the transition well. Interior spokesperson Markus Lammert told reporters that all member states had stated they were ready for the system, which was designed to improve security while allowing smooth travel.
The Entry/Exit System was activated progressively last October and all member states have declared they are prepared to apply it. The majority of airports are applying it fluently.
Lammert said the Commission would continue to support those national authorities that could not yet guarantee the necessary operational resources. A meeting with industry representatives is planned in the coming days, though Brussels did not say whether it was open to the requested suspension.
Early unilateral suspensions
Some airports have already broken ranks. Greece has suspended EES biometric checks for British travellers until September, and Rome airports chief Marco Troncone last week described the process as incompatible with the peak flows the Italian capital expects. The industry groups want a Europe-wide solution before the situation deteriorates further in July.
