The new biometric border controls in Europe have led to long queues and travelers missing their flights. Now the European Commission is being urged to temporarily pause the new border controls during July-August when the load is at its highest.
According to Budget carrier Ryanair, EU airports will witness “queue chaos” this summer because of new fingerprint checks, as the European Commission invited the air industry to an urgent meeting next Tuesday to discuss concerns over the latest Entry/Exit System (EES).
"Ryanair is again calling on European Govts to suspend the rollout of EES until September, when the busiest travel period has passed, to prevent passengers – many travelling with young families from being forced to suffer long and avoidable passport control queues."
"Checks may require scanning passports, providing fingerprints and having a facial image taken, for which the current infrastructure is NOT ready to manage the high passenger volumes expected during peak season, due to insufficient staff, kiosks and system readiness."
Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon said,
As schools break up and Europe enters the busiest travel period of the year, it is clear that EES is still not ready for peak summer volumes. Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer.
Airlines for Europe and Airports Council International have asked the commission to suspend the new border controls “at least throughout July and August” but potentially for a full year until next summer.
Airports Council International said,
The current implementation of the EES is creating severe operational consequences disrupting passengers and putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure. We therefore urge your immediate intervention before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season.
They are concerned that airports are not ready to cope with the influx of passengers over the peak summer season, that staff are being subjected to abuse as queues build for fingerprinting and that the whole travel industry will be hit hard.
Airports Council International added further,
We are now entering the busiest period of the year. During July and August alone, European airports are expected to handle approximately 40 million more passengers than during the previous two months.
The Commission and Member States must take stock of the reality of the current situation and of what our air transport system will face over the coming weeks. Without additional flexibility, existing challenges will inevitably intensify. As representatives of Europe's aviation sector, we have a responsibility to warn that this would result in a significant worsening of an already very difficult situation for passengers.
Ryanair said it had already urged suspension until September in the “most exposed countries”, claiming the current infrastructure is “not ready to manage the high passenger volumes expected” from mid July.
The carrier also listed seven airports that were already “experiencing major disruptions” with “further congestion expected” as the season gets busier.
The airports are: Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante and Málaga in Spain, Milan Bergamo in Italy, Krakow in Poland and Paris Beauvais in France.
Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operating officer, said:
“It is clear that the entry/exit system (EES) is still not ready for peak summer volumes. Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer.”
The EES has been in the pipeline for 10 years and was conceived to give countries in the Schengen travel area greater visibility of who is coming in and leaving the EU.
The only two countries in the EU not participating are island nations, Ireland and Cyprus.
Its introduction was delayed multiple times but finally implemented in October 2025 with options for member states to opt out while the technology and the logistics of getting passengers to be fingerprinted was tested.
European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen has acknowledged that "there is still quite a bit of work to do" to resolve problems related to the new automated border control system for third-country nationals.
The system is being gradually implemented since October 2025, starting with the Czech Republic, Estonia and Luxembourg.
The EES replaced the manual stamping of passports: now, when entering the Schengen area, third-country nationals undergo biometric registration - they submit a photograph and fingerprints. EU citizens, residence permit holders and diplomats are exempt from this procedure.
The EU has said airports can suspend EES checks at any time in July and August if queues build up.
Officials said they would also deploy support border staff if necessary, as happened recently at Lisbon airport after a request for help.
They said checks were taking an average of 70 seconds and that most airports were not experiencing major issues.
The EU has so far recorded more than 100m entries and exits of the estimated 200m to 300m border crossings a year, with some countries including France, Italy and Greece not implementing the system either fully or partly.
More than 100 million of the 500 million non-EU citizens that enter and exit the bloc each year are already registered. 44,000 people were refused entry, mostly for not having the correct travel document or visa, an EU official said.
