Italy Struggles With EES Queues As Europe Adapts New Borders

Four months after Europe’s new biometric Entry/Exit System became fully operational, Italy’s major airports are feeling the strain, even as experience from France, Greece and Germany exposes broader weaknesses in the continent’s upgraded border regime.

Europe’s New Border Regime: How EES Works

The European Union’s Entry/Exit System, or EES, is a continent-wide database that replaces passport stamping for most non-EU travelers entering the Schengen area. Instead of ink stamps, the system records when and where a traveler crosses the external border and how long they are allowed to stay.

The system went live in stages from October 2025 and has been fully operational at all external border crossing points of participating countries since 10 April 2026. At airports, the change is most visible at the first line of border control, where arriving and departing third-country nationals are now asked to provide fingerprints and a facial image alongside their passport.

Once enrolled, a traveler’s biometric and passport data are stored for future trips, which in theory should speed up repeated crossings and make it easier for border officers to detect overstays. In practice, the initial registration remains significantly slower than a stamp, and processing times have lengthened at many of Europe’s busiest hubs.

All 29 countries applying Schengen rules, including Italy, France, Germany and Greece, now operate EES at external borders. Land and sea crossings are affected as well, but air borders, with their concentrated summer peaks and tight connection times, are where the growing pains are currently most visible.

Italy’s Airports Under Pressure Ahead of Peak Season

Italy, which relies heavily on summer tourism and hosts some of Europe’s busiest holiday gateways, is emerging as one of the key pressure points in the EES rollout. Reports from travelers passing through Rome, Milan and regional airports in Tuscany describe long lines, inconsistent procedures and confused wayfinding around the new checks.

At Milan Malpensa, passengers have reported queues snaking through the non-EU arrival and departure halls as officers switch between traditional booths and new biometric stations. Accounts from April and May indicate that some travelers were directed to newly installed EES kiosks while others were processed manually, with little explanation of why one lane was slower than another.

Florence and Pisa, key entry points for central Italy, have also seen delays as airport operators repurpose limited space to host EES kiosks and additional border-control desks. Travelers recount being held in bottlenecks where only a few booths were staffed, even as flights continued to arrive from the United Kingdom, North America and the Middle East.

Italy faces a particular challenge because so many leisure visitors arrive in short bursts linked to cruise traffic and weekend city breaks. Border police staffing and terminal layouts were designed around the old, faster stamp-based checks. With EES requiring initial biometric enrolment for millions of first-time users this summer, processing a single full aircraft can now take substantially longer than it did in previous years.

Contrasting Approaches in France, Greece and Germany

Experiences in other major Schengen destinations underline how national choices and airport preparation are shaping the impact of EES on travelers. France was among the earliest to highlight the risk of congestion, with Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly handling large volumes of non-EU visitors and transit passengers. Reports from this spring describe significant queues during peak times, but also note that French hubs have progressively opened more automated lanes and dedicated staff to guide passengers through the new procedures.

Germany’s large airports, including Frankfurt and Munich, have also experienced heavier load at border control, particularly for connecting travelers arriving from outside the EU and continuing on to Schengen destinations. Publicly available information from airport operators and passenger accounts suggests that Germany invested early in automated gates and self-service kiosks, but still encountered slowdowns when the EES database connection lagged or when officers had to intervene in failed biometric matches.

Greece, heavily dependent on summer tourism and a favored destination for British travelers, has drawn attention for taking a more flexible line. According to widespread media coverage and travel-industry commentary, Greek authorities eased the practical application of biometric checks for some non-EU nationals at certain airports to reduce peak-season disruption. The intent has been to keep passenger flows moving where terminals and staffing are limited, even if that means relying more heavily on visual document checks in the short term.

Together, these examples show a patchwork of implementation strategies across the Schengen area. The core legal requirements of EES are the same, but each country’s infrastructure, staffing levels and political tolerance for queues are shaping how strictly and how quickly new procedures are applied on the ground.

Why EES Is Slowing Lines and Who Is Affected

The central reason EES is generating queues is straightforward: recording a traveler’s biometric data and confirming it against a live database takes longer than stamping a passport. For first-time users, officers must capture fingerprints and a facial image, confirm personal details, and resolve any mismatches or technical errors before the gate opens.

Airport industry groups have warned that, without substantial extra staffing and upgraded terminal layouts, overall processing time per passenger can multiply several-fold, especially where the number of border-control desks remains unchanged. Even minor outages or bottlenecks in the central system can quickly back up into crowded arrival halls during busy waves of flights.

The new controls apply to most non-EU and non-Schengen visitors entering for short stays, including travelers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and many Asian countries. Long-term residents with EU residence permits, and EU or Schengen nationals using their national ID or passport, are typically handled through separate lines and are not recorded in EES in the same way.

Because the system logs entry and exit dates electronically, it also tightens enforcement of the rule limiting many non-EU visitors to 90 days in any 180-day period within the Schengen area. Travelers who previously relied on occasionally inconsistent passport stamps can now expect more precise tracking of their time in Europe, which is one reason border agencies are keen to ensure each movement is captured correctly, even at the cost of slower queues.

What Travelers Should Do Now When Flying to Italy

For visitors planning trips to Italy in the coming months, the main practical adjustment is time. Airlines, airports and travel advisers are increasingly recommending that non-EU travelers allow extra margin at departure and on arrival, particularly at busy hubs such as Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa and at smaller airports that lack extensive border infrastructure.

At departure from a Schengen airport, travelers leaving Italy for non-EU destinations should expect to pass through EES checks in the outbound passport-control area. Those who were not enrolled on arrival, or who are crossing an external Schengen border for the first time since the system became fully operational, may face the longest processing times.

Passengers can smooth the process by having passports ready, removing hats and sunglasses before approaching biometric cameras, and following staff directions about which lane or kiosk to use. Families should be prepared for children over a certain age to provide biometric data, while younger minors may be exempt from fingerprinting but still need their passports scanned.

Most importantly, travelers with tight connections should consider rebooking itineraries that leave less than a couple of hours between an intercontinental arrival and a Schengen connection at Italian or other European hubs. Until airports and border agencies fully adapt staffing and technology to the new reality, EES will remain a source of uncertainty that careful planning can help mitigate, but not entirely remove.