European airlines and airports are sounding the alarm over what some executives are calling “systemic chaos” ahead of the peak 2026 summer season, as the Schengen area races to scale up the new Entry/Exit System for non EU travelers. After a bumpy rollout through late 2025 and early 2026, industry bodies, border authorities and the European Commission are now locked in a tense balancing act: tightening external border controls while trying to avoid hours long queues that could derail Europe’s tourism rebound.
What the Schengen EES Actually Is
The Entry/Exit System, known as EES, is a large scale EU border database designed to replace old fashioned passport stamping for travelers from outside the Schengen area. Instead of a simple ink stamp, non EU nationals now have their biometric data captured on first entry fingerprints and a facial image as well as their passport details and the timing and place of each crossing.
The goal is to strengthen security and better enforce the familiar 90 days in any 180 day rule that governs short stays in most of continental Europe. By logging entries and exits automatically, EES aims to make it harder for people to overstay or use forged documents, while also giving border guards a clearer picture of who is in the zone at any given time.
In practical terms, though, the system means that first time registrants need to stop at dedicated kiosks or terminals on arrival. They must scan their passport, place their fingers on a reader and look at a camera, then wait while the system checks and confirms their profile. That is a more complex and time consuming interaction than a quick visual check and stamp, and multiplied across thousands of passengers per hour it is where today’s bottlenecks begin.
A Phased Rollout Colliding With Peak Travel
EES did not arrive all at once. The system was launched in a progressive, trial style approach beginning in October 2025 at selected airports and ports, with only a fraction of eligible travelers processed in the early months. At first, member states were asked to register just 10 percent of third country arrivals while border guards and IT teams learned how the system behaved in real life.
That threshold has since been raised, with many airports now capturing biometric data for around a third of non EU arrivals and more border crossing points being switched on. The legal deadline for full scale implementation currently falls on April 10, 2026, when member states are supposed to have EES live at all external Schengen borders and apply it to all short stay third country travelers.
Airports and airlines argue that this calendar collides almost perfectly with Europe’s busiest travel period. Late spring and summer see a surge of visitors from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and across Asia, many of them leisure travelers arriving in large waves on morning and late evening flights. With only partial experience of the new formalities so far, industry leaders fear that switching from one in three travelers to nearly all of them at EES kiosks just weeks before school holidays begin is a recipe for severe disruption.
Warnings of “Systemic Chaos” From the Front Line
The language coming out of the aviation sector in early 2026 is unusually stark. Airports Council International Europe, which represents hundreds of airports across the continent, has reported that border processing times at early adopter hubs have in some cases risen by up to 70 percent compared with pre EES checks. In peak periods that translates into queues stretching to three hours or more.
During the 2025 festive season, airports such as Malaga Costa del Sol and Geneva became early cautionary tales. Passengers reported lines barely moving for extended periods while biometric kiosks malfunctioned or had to be taken out of service. Some missed flights despite arriving well in advance, and national police forces were forced to manually manage crowds around border control areas. Illustrated images of snaking queues in Spanish and Swiss terminals quickly circulated on social media, amplifying concerns ahead of summer.
These experiences underpin the “systemic” label now used by some airport executives. The issues are not confined to a single country or a single air carrier, they argue, but flow from the basic mechanics of enrolling millions of people into a new biometric database at busy frontiers that already struggle with staffing and infrastructure constraints. The fear is that without further adjustments, summer 2026 could see a repeat on a much larger scale.
Commission Flexibility vs Industry Fears
In Brussels, officials at the European Commission insist that overall the system has been working more smoothly than some headlines suggest. They say that, taken across all member states, registration has already surpassed the original 10 percent target and in many locations exceeded the 35 percent threshold without generating widespread, persistent gridlock. Border guards are gaining experience, procedures are being tweaked and some of the long waits seen in the earliest days are described as isolated teething problems rather than an inherent flaw.
At the same time, however, the Commission has acknowledged the real risk that scaling up to full coverage just as peak holiday travel begins could overwhelm certain gateways. In early February 2026 it confirmed that member states would be granted extensive flexibility to suspend or limit EES operations temporarily when necessary, both during the remaining rollout phase and after the April deadline. Countries will be allowed to revert to manual passport stamping for defined periods, with an initial 90 day window and the possibility of an extra 60 days on top, specifically to help avoid “summer travel chaos.”
Travel bodies, including ACI Europe and the UK travel association Abta, welcome the principle of that flexibility but warn that it needs to be applied consistently and preemptively, not only when queues have already spiraled out of control. Their concern is that without a coordinated, well communicated plan, different airports and ferry ports may interpret the leeway in very different ways, leading to a patchwork of traveler experiences and further confusion.
Where the Pressure Is Already Visible
Behind the high level debate there is a growing catalog of concrete flashpoints that illustrates how fragile the system can be under pressure. In Lisbon, authorities took the highly unusual step of suspending EES entirely for several months after serious deficiencies at border control produced waits reported at up to seven hours during peaks. In Geneva, one of Europe’s gateways to the Alps, the system has been periodically disabled so that border guards can clear overwhelming backlogs using traditional manual checks.
Across the Mediterranean belt France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are central to Europe’s summer tourism economy and host a large share of its low cost leisure flights. Airports in these countries have reported delays ranging from 40 minutes to several hours at EES powered checkpoints during busy arrival waves. Travel reporters from consumer organizations have described near misses where they almost missed flights due to malfunctioning scanners or confusing queue arrangements around the new kiosks.
Some airports have responded with aggressive messaging to passengers, urging them to arrive at terminals even earlier than before. Budget airlines flying into Spanish and Portuguese resorts have advised customers to allow three hours or more to clear security and border formalities. While such margins can help individual travelers avoid missed departures, they also add friction to short city breaks and increase overall congestion in terminal buildings.
Staffing Gaps and Strikes Compound the Risk
Technology is only part of the story. The European air transport system is still grappling with chronic staffing shortages that emerged after the pandemic. Many airports, ground handling firms and air navigation service providers shed experienced workers during the collapse in traffic, and rehiring while retraining new staff has been slower and more complex than anticipated. In some major countries, up to one in four posts in air traffic control remains vacant, according to industry estimates.
The result is that a system that has become structurally leaner is now being asked to handle more complex procedures at the border. Longer interaction times for each passenger place greater demand on police units and border agencies, many of which already rely on overtime and temporary contracts to cover peak hours. Any technical hiccup in EES, or any spike in passenger volumes beyond forecasts, risks rippling quickly through security, baggage and boarding operations.
Overlaying all this is the persistent threat of strikes. Air traffic controllers in France, Spain and other states have repeatedly walked out in recent summers, protesting work conditions and staffing levels. Their actions have already caused thousands of flight cancellations and significant rerouting across European airspace. Airlines fear that if industrial action coincides with EES related disruptions at key entry points, the combined shock could push the system to a breaking point during July and August.
What This Means for Summer Travelers
For individual travelers planning a European trip in mid 2026, the headline risk is time. Most non EU visitors, including those from the UK, US and many Asian and Latin American countries, should expect the possibility of longer queues at passport control, especially on their first trip since EES went live or when entering through particularly busy leisure hubs. Processing is likely to be slower for families with children, elderly travelers and anyone unfamiliar with self service technology.
Compounding the longer checks is the inherent variability of how EES will be applied. Some airports may choose to lean heavily on the new biometrics from early in the season and reserve manual stamping as an exceptional fallback. Others may strategically disable EES at peak hours to keep lines moving, only registering a smaller number of travelers at quieter times. Ferry ports, rail terminals serving cross Channel or cross border routes, and land crossings for road traffic will also be implementing the system to varying degrees, creating a patchwork that is hard to predict from the outside.
Travelers with tight onward connections for domestic flights or trains inside Europe are particularly exposed. A 30 or 40 minute delay at border control that might once have been an annoyance could now be enough to make a tight layover unworkable. Industry insiders are advising passengers to build more generous buffers between arrival and any subsequent legs, even if that means spending more time in the airport than they would prefer.
How Authorities and the Industry Are Responding
Airlines and airports are not passively waiting for the summer storm. Many have been working with national authorities to remodel passenger flows in terminals, adding lanes for self service kiosks, repositioning signage and training staff to help guide travelers through registration quickly. Some are experimenting with dedicated queues for passengers who have already completed EES enrollment at a previous visit, in the hope of rewarding repeat travelers with a smoother experience.
Technological refinements are also under way. Software updates aim to make biometric capture more reliable, reduce the number of failed reads and speed up communication with central databases. Border agencies are analyzing real time data from the rollout phase to adjust staffing rosters, fine tune shift patterns and predict when and where pressure on control booths will spike.
At a political level, there is intense lobbying for clear and proactive communication. Travel associations argue that member states should publicly signal when they intend to rely on EES during the busiest weeks and when they expect to fall back on manual stamping, so that tour operators and airlines can adjust schedules and inform customers in advance. Without this transparency, they warn, the perception of chaos could be as damaging as the actual delays.
Practical Takeaways for Would Be Visitors
For travelers from outside the EU and Schengen area, the emerging consensus across the industry is cautious but not catastrophic. EES is not expected to make European travel impossible, and officials stress that in many locations queues have remained manageable once staff and passengers adapted to the new procedures. In the longer term, once most regular visitors are enrolled and border guards are comfortable with the technology, the system could even lead to smoother, more predictable checks.
The short term, however, particularly summer 2026, is likely to be bumpy. Prospective visitors should pay close attention to guidance from their airlines and departure airports in the weeks before travel, allow extra time to clear formalities and avoid scheduling extremely tight connections where possible. Families and groups might want to rehearse the steps at the kiosk in advance, making sure everyone understands that they will need to remove hats or glasses for photos and place fingers correctly on scanners.
Europe’s experiment with biometric border control is unfolding in real time at some of the world’s busiest holiday destinations. Whether it will be remembered as a painful but brief transition or as the cause of a “systemic chaos” summer depends on decisions taken in the coming months by Brussels, national governments and local airport managers. For now, one thing is clear for visitors planning a Schengen trip this year: factor the Entry/Exit System into your plans just as carefully as you do your flights and hotel bookings.