Europe’s airports are warning of mounting disruption as the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) for non-EU travelers triggers significantly longer border checks, with peak-time queues now stretching to several hours at some hubs and industry groups cautioning that congestion is likely to worsen as the biometric regime is rolled out more widely in the months ahead.

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A phased rollout that is already straining airports

The EES, which began its phased rollout at air borders in October 2025, replaces traditional passport stamping for short-stay, non-EU visitors with a centralized digital record of every entry and exit.

On first arrival, eligible travelers must enroll biometric data, including fingerprints and a facial image, at kiosks or staffed stations before proceeding through passport control. Subsequent visits are meant to be quicker, relying on verification against the stored profile.

EU lawmakers agreed to a gradual launch over 180 days, with member states initially required to register around 10 percent of eligible crossings before ramping up to 35 percent and ultimately to full coverage by April 2026.

The intention was to avoid a simultaneous “big bang” switch-on that could overwhelm border posts and IT systems. National authorities were also granted flexibility to temporarily suspend EES use or slow the ramp-up if waiting times became unmanageable or technical issues emerged.

Despite this cautious approach, initial experience at airports suggests that even limited activation is enough to create severe stress points.

At many gateways, only a minority of passengers are currently being routed through EES, yet processing times at the border have already lengthened sharply and terminals are reporting new bottlenecks at passport control queues, self-service kiosks and manual enrollment desks.

The system’s central database and shared infrastructure are overseen by the EU’s IT agency, while each member state is responsible for installing hardware, integrating local border police processes and staffing the checkpoints. Industry figures say that uneven national preparations, patchy training and lingering equipment issues are contributing to delays, especially during early-morning waves and evening peaks when widebody long-haul arrivals converge.

Processing times up 70 percent and waits reaching three hours

Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, which represents more than 500 airports across the continent, reported this week that border-control processing times at EES-enabled airports have increased by up to 70 percent compared with pre-rollout levels.

At peak periods, that has translated into queues of up to three hours for some passengers waiting to clear passport control, even though only a fraction of eligible travelers are currently being enrolled.

The group says the worst-affected hubs so far include airports in France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. These countries attract high volumes of leisure visitors from the United Kingdom, United States and other non-EU markets that fall under the new system, magnifying the operational impact.

In several cases, passengers have reported missing flights because of unexpectedly long waits at departure border checks and transfer points.

Recent travel-industry accounts also highlight severe congestion at specific airports where EES went fully live. Tenerife South in Spain has seen arrivals halls backed up with new EES queues, while Austrian airports, including Vienna, report that biometric enrollment is adding two to four minutes per passenger at busy times.

Geneva, one of Europe’s busiest alpine gateways, has experienced such acute delays that the system has reportedly been switched off temporarily on several occasions to restore passenger flow.

European media reports and airport advisories suggest that waits of one to three hours are becoming common at certain border posts when several large flights arrive in quick succession and a high proportion of passengers require first-time registration.

Industry experts warn that these conditions are emerging at a point when only around one in ten eligible travelers is actually being processed through EES, raising concern about what will happen as that share increases in early 2026.

Technical outages and staffing gaps compound congestion

Airport operators and border police say longer checks are not solely the result of the new biometric capture procedures.

ACI Europe’s latest review points to a combination of technical and operational challenges that, together, are undermining the predictability of border operations and making it difficult for airports to plan for peaks in demand.

Among the most frequently cited problems are intermittent outages of the EES system and related configuration issues that can take kiosks or e-gates offline without warning. When that happens, travelers must be redirected to traditional staffed desks, instantly lengthening queues and increasing the workload on already stretched border-guard teams.

Some airports have reported periods when self-service kiosks have been either partially unavailable or entirely out of service, forcing shifts to slower manual procedures.

Staffing constraints are another critical pressure point. Border agencies in multiple countries, still recovering from pandemic-era cuts and faced with increased security demands, have struggled to hire and train enough officers to manage the more complex EES workflow.

ACI notes that insufficient deployment of border guards at key times has slowed checks further, turning what might have been manageable delays into multi-hour snarls when kiosks, e-gates and manual counters all reach saturation.

Industry representatives also question why a robust, widely available pre-registration app has still not been deployed at scale, despite years of advance warning about the system’s design.

Such a tool could allow travelers to complete parts of the data entry process before arrival at the border, easing the load on airport infrastructure. In its absence, most enrollment is taking place in the most constrained environment possible, right at the physical checkpoint during peak congestion.

Industry bodies call for urgent review of the rollout plan

On 18 December, ACI Europe issued a formal appeal to the European Commission, the EU’s IT agency eu-LISA, border agency Frontex and the governments of Schengen member states, urging an urgent review of how EES is being implemented.

The association warned that current delays, occurring when only a limited share of eligible passengers is being registered, amount to a clear signal that the system is not yet operating at a sustainable level.

ACI’s director general, Olivier Jankovec, said airports were already seeing “significant discomfort” for travelers and operational disruption to airlines and ground handlers.

He cautioned that raising the registration threshold from 10 percent to 35 percent of eligible third-country nationals in January, as the implementation calendar currently requires, would “inevitably” produce much more severe congestion unless the underlying technical and staffing problems are resolved in the weeks ahead.

The organization’s concerns echo warnings from airline groups, national airport associations and travel trade bodies, many of whom have been asking EU institutions for greater flexibility in the rollout timeline.

Carriers argue that persistent border bottlenecks risk undermining hard-won gains in schedule reliability and could trigger a new wave of missed connections, denied boardings and compensation claims during the key spring and summer seasons of 2026.

Policymakers have defended the principle of the EES, pointing to its role in tightening the management of the Schengen external border and automating the calculation of stays for short-term visitors.

However, they face increasing pressure to show that the system can deliver its promised security and efficiency benefits without causing chronic gridlock at airports, ferry ports and rail terminals that are still rebuilding traveler confidence after years of pandemic and staffing-related disruption.

Travel hotspots and vulnerable chokepoints across Europe

The impact of the new border process varies widely by airport, in part because member states have chosen different strategies for where and how to deploy EES first. Some have concentrated early efforts at key international hubs with extensive long-haul traffic from the United Kingdom, North America and Asia. Others have started at smaller or seasonal gateways seen as manageable testbeds before expanding to the largest facilities.

Reports from Spain indicate that popular holiday destinations, including the Canary Islands and Mediterranean resorts, are already feeling the strain. High proportions of UK visitors, who are now treated as third-country nationals post-Brexit, mean that a large share of arriving passengers must undergo biometric enrollment.

At Tenerife South, local media and passenger accounts describe queues snaking through the arrivals area, with airlines advising customers to allow extra time and temper expectations about rapid clearance.

In Austria, airports serving ski regions and winter tourism flows, such as Innsbruck and Salzburg, are grappling with the combined effect of seasonal peaks and the new technology.

Border-police unions there say that each new biometric registration can add several minutes to the standard inspection, and operators have been forced to redeploy staff from security checkpoints to immigration booths to avoid complete standstills.

Other airports, including Zurich and several major hubs in France, Germany and Italy, report less dramatic scenes but still acknowledge that processing is slower, particularly for first-time registrants unfamiliar with the requirements.

With more countries preparing to switch on or scale up EES installations through early 2026, travel industry observers warn that today’s localized pinch points could spread into a continent-wide patchwork of unpredictable delays unless a more coordinated operational strategy takes shape.

What travelers are being told to do differently

Airports, airlines and national authorities have begun updating their advice to passengers in light of the EES experience so far.

The most common message is to arrive earlier than usual for outbound flights from Europe, especially during weekends, holidays and peak leisure seasons, and to expect longer waits at border control when entering or leaving the Schengen area.

Some carriers now recommend allowing three to four hours at the airport for international departures to provide a buffer against unexpected hold-ups at passport control.

Travelers who qualify for EES checks are being urged to prepare documents in advance and follow signage carefully to the appropriate kiosks or lanes. Those without biometric passports are typically directed to staffed counters, while others may use self-service units for the initial data capture before presenting themselves to a border officer.

Airport briefings emphasize that removing passports from sleeves or covers and having family groups ready before reaching the front of the queue can help keep lines moving.

Some European airports and airlines have launched information campaigns explaining that the first trip under EES will take longer but that subsequent journeys should be quicker once a traveler’s biometric profile is stored in the system for up to three years, or until the passport expires.

Still, with inconsistent deployment across the network and ongoing technical glitches, many passengers find it difficult to know exactly what to expect from one border crossing to the next.

Consular authorities in the United Kingdom and other non-EU countries have also begun issuing advisories about the new rules, noting that refusal to provide biometric data will result in denial of entry.

They stress that while individual checks are designed to take only a couple of minutes, the cumulative impact at busy times may be significant until the system and staffing levels stabilize.

Balancing border security, technology and passenger experience

The EES is one of the most ambitious digital border projects undertaken by the European Union, designed to strengthen security, tackle overstays and modernize a patchwork of manual passport-stamping practices at the external frontier.

For policymakers, it is a key pillar of efforts to better monitor who is entering and leaving the Schengen zone, while also laying the groundwork for future systems such as the ETIAS travel authorization program.

Supporters argue that once teething problems are overcome, the technology should enable more automated, data-driven controls that ultimately reduce queues by moving away from time-consuming manual checks.

Biometric enrollment on the first visit, they note, allows subsequent trips to rely on quick facial or fingerprint verification, potentially through e-gates or dedicated third-country national lanes that can handle high volumes of travelers.

However, the first months of live operation underscore how difficult it can be to introduce sophisticated digital infrastructure into real-world border environments that are constrained by legacy facilities, tight labor markets and volatile demand patterns.

Airports say their ability to adapt layouts, expand queuing areas and install additional equipment is limited by both physical space and investment cycles, while border agencies must recruit and train officers in a highly competitive job market.

As European institutions weigh calls for an implementation review, the central challenge will be to recalibrate the pace of rollout, technical rollout priorities and staffing commitments in a way that preserves the security objectives of EES without overwhelming frontline operations.

With the system on track to reach full coverage by April 2026, the coming months will be critical in determining whether Europe’s digital border transformation can be stabilized before the next peak summer travel season.

FAQ

Q1: What is the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES)?
EES is a new EU-wide digital border system that records the entry and exit of non-EU nationals on short stays, replacing manual passport stamps with biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images stored in a central database.

Q2: Who has to use EES when traveling to Europe?
The system applies to most non-EU, non-Schengen travelers who do not need a visa for short stays, including many visitors from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and other visa-exempt countries entering the Schengen area.

Q3: Why are airports reporting multi-hour waits at passport control?
Longer queues are being driven by the extra time needed for first-time biometric enrollment, combined with technical outages, configuration issues and shortages of border-guard staff at some airports, all of which slow down the flow of passengers at peak times.

Q4: Are these delays happening everywhere in Europe?
No, the impact varies by country and airport. The most severe congestion has been reported at certain hubs in France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as at specific seasonal gateways and early-adopter airports where EES is fully active.

Q5: How much longer do border checks take under EES?
Airport operators say border-control processing times have increased by up to 70 percent in some locations, and first-time enrollment for an individual traveler can add several minutes per person during busy periods, leading to queues of one to three hours in the worst cases.

Q6: Will things improve after my first trip once I am enrolled?
In principle, yes. After your initial biometric enrollment, subsequent visits should be quicker because border systems can verify your identity against existing records, although actual wait times will still depend on local staffing levels and any technical problems on the day.

Q7: What are airports and airlines advising passengers to do?
Many are urging travelers to arrive earlier than usual for international departures, particularly during holidays and peak seasons, to have passports ready, follow signage to the correct kiosks or lanes and be prepared for potentially extended waits at passport control.

Q8: Can the EES rollout be slowed or paused if delays get worse?
EU rules allow for a gradual rollout over a 180-day period and give national authorities the flexibility to suspend or scale back use temporarily if waiting times or technical issues become unmanageable, though industry groups are asking for this flexibility to be used more proactively.

Q9: How long will my biometric data be stored in the system?
For most short-stay visitors, EES is designed to keep biometric and travel data for up to three years from the last entry, or until your passport expires, after which the record is removed or renewed with a new document.

Q10: What happens if I refuse to provide biometric data at the border?
Travelers who refuse to enroll required biometric information under EES will not be allowed to enter the Schengen area, so authorities and airlines are emphasizing that compliance with the new checks is mandatory for eligible non-EU visitors.