EU officials call ‘urgent’ meeting with airlines and airports over feared EES ‘chaos’¶
Aviation industry representatives are calling for flexibility to suspend new border checks if queues get too long in July and August.
European Commission officials have agreed to meet with airline industry representatives in the coming days to discuss concerns about the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), after the sector urged the bloc to allow member states to suspend the new digital border control measures if airports become overwhelmed in the summer.
In a 1 July open letter to the Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, trade associations ACI Europe, Airlines for Europe and IATA said that the current implementation of the EES was “creating severe operational consequences, disrupting passengers and putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure”.
The letter calls for “immediate intervention before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season”.
Airlines and airports argue that since the full rollout of EES in April, waiting times for passengers entering the Schengen area have increased to as much as 5h during peak times, despite member states “making extensive use of the temporary flexibility allowing border control authorities to suspend the collection of biometric data until the beginning of September”.
Long queues¶
While this measure has provided “some relief”, say the trade bodies in their letter, “it has not prevented excessive queues for passengers nor preserved airport and airline operations”. Instead, the industry is calling for member states to immediately be given “all the flexibility needed to completely suspend EES, preventively, whenever passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities, at least throughout July and August”.
The industry also wants to see, by September, the establishment of a permanent operational flexibility mechanism.
A European Commission spokesperson tells FlightGlobal that it will respond to the letter “shortly”, adding: “In view of the coming summer period, we have called for another urgent meeting with member states and representatives of the industry, to take place as soon as possible in the next days.”
The spokesperson points out that the EES was “launched progressively” from October 2025, “after all member states had given their declaration of readiness”.
“All efforts are being made to limit the impact on travellers from outside the EU,” says the Commission. “In most EU airports, this impact is indeed limited. Member states are the ones who need to ensure that the necessary operational capacity is in place, including sufficient numbers of border guards, appropriate infrastructure and automated border control solutions.”
EES requires non-EU nationals to provide biometric data when they arrive at the border of a Schengen country. The extra checks, which are designed to replace the system of manually stamping passports, take time to complete and there have been complaints of technology not working and of long queues at border control, leading to reports of some passengers missing flights as a result.
The purpose of the system, says the Commission, is to “improve the security of EU citizens while keeping travelling smooth for legitimate travellers”.
ACI Europe, A4E and IATA acknowledge in their letter that EES plays a “vital role” in strengthening the security of the EU’s borders. However, they argue that without additional flexibility, “existing challenges will inevitably intensify”.
Ryanair warned on 2 July of “passport queue chaos” and has urged the EU to suspend the rollout of EES until September. It says airports including Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Krakow and Paris Beauvais are experiencing “major disruptions”.
“Ryanair calls on European governments once again to delay the implementation [of EES] to protect passengers, families and airport operations during the school holiday rush, instead of forcing holiday-makers to endure needless passport control chaos,” says Ryanair chief operations officer Neal McMahon.Subscribe to gain access to all newsAlready have a subscription?Log in.Choose your subscriptionConsidering a corporate subscription?Contact usto find out more.
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