Europe’s long-trailed shift to biometric border controls has moved from future promise to present-day pain. As the Schengen Entry/Exit System (EES) rolls out across airports, ports and land crossings, major aviation bodies are warning that technical glitches, staffing gaps and rigid rules are already creating lengthy queues for non-EU travellers. With the peak summer season of 2026 approaching, ACI EUROPE, Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have jointly urged the European Commission to act now to avoid scenes of four-hour lines and missed flights at some of the continent’s busiest gateways.
What the industry is warning about
On 11 February 2026, ACI EUROPE, A4E and IATA published a coordinated warning that the Schengen Entry/Exit System is causing “significant delays” for passengers at many European border points. Under the current phase of the scheme’s progressive rollout, border authorities must register 35 percent of all third-country nationals entering the Schengen zone, capturing biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images along with passport details. That threshold alone is already generating waiting times of up to two hours at some airports during busy periods.
In a joint letter to EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner, the three organisations argue that pushing ahead to full EES use for all non-EU travellers during the height of summer 2026 would be a recipe for chaos. With July and August passenger numbers often doubling winter volumes at key hubs, they warn that queues could reach four hours or more for arriving tourists. In extreme scenarios, some experts have cautioned that lines might stretch to five or six hours at the most constrained border posts if problems are not fixed.
The warning is particularly stark because it comes after several months of lived experience rather than theoretical modelling. Since the first phase of EES went live in October 2025, passengers have already reported multi-hour queues at airports in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and other popular holiday destinations. In some cases, travellers have missed flights or connections because they were stuck in border queues waiting for biometric registration to complete.
For the aviation industry, the concern is no longer that EES could cause disruption in the future, but that it is already undermining the hard-won recovery of European air travel. After years spent rebuilding capacity and consumer confidence following the pandemic, airlines and airports fear that unmanaged border congestion could undo much of that work just as demand returns to record levels.
Understanding the Schengen Entry/Exit System
The Schengen Entry/Exit System is a major upgrade of the way Europe manages its external borders. Instead of stamping passports manually, border guards now use digital kiosks or booths to register non-EU, non-Schengen nationals the first time they enter. Travellers’ biometric data and passport details are recorded in a central database, which automatically calculates their permitted stay under the 90-days-in-180-days rule and logs each entry and exit.
The system has several policy goals. It is designed to strengthen security by making it harder for travellers to overstay or use fraudulent documents, and to give authorities better visibility of who is in the Schengen area at any given time. It is also intended to support the forthcoming ETIAS travel authorisation scheme, which will require visa-exempt visitors, including most Americans and Britons, to obtain an online clearance before travelling.
In the long term, EU officials argue that EES should actually speed things up for frequent visitors once their details are on file, allowing them to be processed quickly via automated gates. But reaching that steady state requires an initial surge of registrations as millions of passengers enrol their biometrics for the first time. It is this transition period, combined with patchy infrastructure and staffing at frontline border posts, that is now causing concern.
Although the full legal deadline for EES to be operational at all Schengen external borders is in April 2026, the system is already live at an expanding list of airports and ports. Each new location that switches on brings another test of how well the technology integrates with real-world operations, and recent months have revealed serious growing pains.
Why queues are already forming
ACI EUROPE, A4E and IATA pinpoint three main drivers behind the current delays: chronic understaffing at border control points, unresolved technology issues, and the limited use of a pre-registration app developed by Frontex, the EU border agency. In practice, these challenges interact to create bottlenecks just as passenger volumes swell.
At many airports, border police units have been slow to hire and train the additional staff needed to manage more complex checks. EES adds new steps to the process, from guiding first-time users through kiosks to resolving errors when biometric scans fail. Where only a few booths are open or officers are stretched between multiple tasks, the queue grows fast, particularly when several flights from non-EU origins arrive close together.
Technical problems have also been frequent. Reports from industry groups and national media highlight intermittent system outages, unavailable or malfunctioning self-service kiosks, and difficulties integrating EES with existing automated border gates. In some locations, kiosks have had to be taken out of service altogether, forcing all travellers into slower manual lines.
The Frontex pre-registration app, conceived as a way for travellers to enter some details before arrival and shorten the process at the border, is another weak link. According to the aviation associations, only a minority of Schengen countries have fully embraced the app, and uptake among passengers remains low. Without widespread adoption and robust technical performance, the app is currently doing little to relieve pressure at checkpoints.
How the EU and member states are responding
Faced with these mounting issues, the European Commission has begun to offer member states more flexibility in how they roll out the system. Officials have confirmed that national authorities can temporarily suspend or limit EES checks during peak periods if queues become unmanageable, reverting to manual passport stamping to clear backlogs. This flexibility was initially available during the early phases of implementation and has been extended into the summer period.
Some countries have already taken advantage of this option. Lisbon Airport, one of the first major hubs to experience serious disruption under EES, suspended the system for several months after waiting times reportedly reached as high as seven hours in December. Other airports and ferry ports have quietly scaled back checks or selectively turned off kiosks during busy weekends in order to keep crowds under control.
The joint appeal from ACI EUROPE, A4E and IATA goes further. It asks the Commission to explicitly confirm that Schengen states will be able to partially or completely suspend EES through the end of October 2026 if necessary. Under the current regulatory timetable, the progressive flexibility mechanisms would in theory begin to expire in early July, just as summer travel peaks, leaving member states with fewer tools to manage congestion.
EU officials insist that they share the goal of avoiding “summer travel chaos” and stress that rolling out a large, complex biometric system across dozens of countries inevitably involves teething problems. However, there remains a gap between the relatively optimistic assessments from Brussels and the day-to-day experience reported by airports, airlines and travellers on the ground.
What this means if you are flying to Europe this summer
For travellers from the United States, the United Kingdom and other non-EU countries, the immediate impact of the EES rollout is likely to be felt at the first point of entry into the Schengen area. If you are arriving at an airport where EES is fully active and you have not yet registered your biometrics, you will be directed to kiosks or staffed booths to complete the process before being admitted.
This first enrolment typically takes longer than a traditional passport stamp, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the machines or if staff must intervene to verify your identity. At airports already using the system, processing times at border control have increased by as much as 70 percent during peak periods. While not every traveller will face extreme queues, the likelihood of significant delays is far higher than in previous summers.
One of the biggest practical consequences is the risk of missed connections. Passengers flying via a Schengen hub to elsewhere in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East may underestimate the time needed to clear border formalities before catching their onward flight. Travel insurance will not always cover disruption caused by immigration delays, particularly when they are considered a foreseeable consequence of a new system coming online.
It is also worth noting that EES interacts with other infrastructure constraints that have become familiar to European travellers in recent years. Security screening queues, baggage handling issues and occasional air traffic control restrictions can all combine with slower border checks to create a layered gauntlet for passengers. For holidaymakers who remember the queues of 2022 and 2023, EES threatens to add a fresh complication just as the situation seemed to be improving.
Practical steps to minimise disruption
While passengers cannot control how quickly border authorities and technology providers fix the underlying problems, there are sensible precautions that can help you navigate the transition more smoothly. The first is to allow generous time at every point where you will cross an external Schengen border. For transatlantic arrivals, that means thinking carefully before booking tight connections or late-night arrivals with minimal staffing.
As a rule of thumb, travellers should consider adding at least an extra hour to the connection times they would have accepted in previous years when planning itineraries that pass through major hubs such as Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, Frankfurt or Rome. Where possible, choose itineraries that give you a comfortable buffer between scheduled arrival and onward departure, and avoid the last flight of the day to your final destination.
Once at the airport, follow signage carefully and be prepared with documents in hand. Travellers who can move quickly to the appropriate EES kiosks and follow on-screen instructions without delay help keep the queues flowing. Families should be ready to manage young children through the process, and elderly or less mobile passengers may wish to request assistance in advance from their airline.
Finally, keep abreast of developments at your specific point of entry. Because implementation varies by country and even by airport, the experience at one gateway may be quite different from another. National border police forces, airport operators and airlines often share updates on operational changes, including any temporary suspension of EES, through their usual communication channels. While the situation is fluid, informed travellers are better positioned to adapt.
Looking ahead: from painful transition to potential payoff
Despite the difficult start, it is important to remember that EES is not intended as a permanent source of friction. Once the majority of regular visitors have been enrolled and the technology settles into a stable rhythm, the system could ultimately make border crossings more predictable and secure. Automated checks should help authorities spot overstays and identity fraud more effectively while giving law-abiding travellers a smoother path through the border.
The challenge for 2026 is managing the period when expectations and reality are furthest apart. On paper, EES promises a modern, data-driven approach to border management that aligns with similar systems in other parts of the world. On the ground, queues snaking through terminal corridors are eroding public patience and raising questions about implementation choices, from the positioning of kiosks to the staffing models used at passport control.
The call from ACI EUROPE, A4E and IATA reflects a desire not to abandon the project, but to recalibrate its pace and flexibility so that travellers are not treated as stress-test subjects at the very moment they are returning to Europe in large numbers. Whether policymakers in Brussels and national capitals heed that warning in time for summer will determine the travel experience millions of visitors have in the months ahead.
For now, if your plans include a trip to the Schengen area this summer, the message is clear: EES is already part of the landscape, the rollout will continue, and queues are a real possibility. With extra preparation, longer buffers and a realistic understanding of what awaits at the border, you can still enjoy your European journey while policymakers and industry work behind the scenes to bring the system up to speed.