British holidaymakers could face queues of up to five hours in cities across Europe from Monday, travel experts have warned, with EU border checks set to resume in full following a temporary pause over the summer.
The new Entry/Exit System (EES) system for British passport holders and other third-country travellers to nations within the EU or Schengen area initially came into effect in April, but member states were allowed to relax some restrictions to ease congestion at borders during peak season.
However, these permissions, which included suspending biometric checks during busy periods, will expire for the 29 countries using EES on Sunday – despite several countries asking the European Commission to keep it.
Shorts
Scroll to previous short
Scroll to next short
How Farage is facing his moment of maximum danger
Caption: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking during a press conference at Royal Horseguards Hotel in central London. Picture date: Monday August 10, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: James Manning/PA Wire
Photographer: James Manning
Provider: James Manning/PA Wire
Source: PA
Copyright: PA Wire
news
How Farage is facing his moment of maximum danger
Reform UK’s annual conference has got off to a nightmarish start for Nigel Farage.
The conference that was supposed to convince voters that Farage is a plausible prime minister, began with two of his key allies forced to stand aside in the wake of an explosive Channel 4 donations sting.
Jukes and Orr step down
Dan Jukes, perhaps Farage’s closest adviser, and James Orr, the party’s head of policy, have stepped down pending the outcome of an investigation into the revelations uncovered by Channel 4 and Verbatim.
Thursday night’s sting showed Jukes seemingly discussing a way to get round the legal ban on foreign donations and Orr potentially breaching electoral law by soliciting undeclared donations for polling which.
3 min read
3 min read
Personal blow to Farage
Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham will feature Jordan Bardella, the rising star and president of the National Rally, who will be addressing the gathering on Friday (Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP)
Huge question remain
With two of Farage’s closest confidants out of action, huge questions now hang over what happens to Reform’s operation in the coming weeks and months.
Lack of experience
While Farage will feel wounded by their loss, one senior Reform insider said the fact that Orr and Jukes had allowed themselves to get exposed highlighted the lack of experienced figures around Farage.
For a party like Reform, which claims to believe in free speech and freedom of the press, banning journalists looks hypocritical with a capital ‘H’ (Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP)
Pair are ‘not coming back’
On Friday morning, there was still confusion about the future of Jukes and Orr.
Reform’s formal statement said they had “stepped down from their respective positions pending the outcome of the investigation”, but party chairman Lee Anderson told Sky News that they “are not coming back”.
Caption: FILE PHOTO: Advisor Dan Jukes speaks to UK Reform party leader Nigel Farage before an interview ahead of Thursday’s general election in Clacton-on-Sea, Britain, July 2, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo
Photographer: Hollie Adams
Provider: REUTERS
Source: REUTERS
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 06: Reform UK’s Head of Policy James Orr attends as Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s spokesman for home affairs, holds a press conference on employment policy on August 06, 2026 in London, England. Yusuf said his party would propose legislation that company CEOs and directors criminally liable for the illegal employment of migrant workers, even if they were unaware of a worker’s immigration status. The policy, which the party has termed the “Deliveroo Law,” after the online delivery service, could fine offending companies 10 percent of their global revenues. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Photographer: Leon Neal
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
‘Off the books’ Reform polling
Questions remain about how much Farage knew about what Jukes and Orr were up to.
The Channel 4 investigation included secret footage of Farage at a lunch with Jukes in which he appeared to be aware of the ‘off the books’ polling.
Caption: (FILES) Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage (C), talks with Dan Jukes (centre L), as he visits the area where two men were stabbed the day before, in the Golders Green neighbourhood of north London, on April 30, 2026. Two senior officials resigned from Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK on September 4, 2026, as the scandal-hit party was reported to the police over fresh allegations it flouted donations rules. Farage’s long-term aide Dan Jukes and Reform’s head of policy James Orr stepped down, the party said, adding that it had launched a probe into the allegations revealed in an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: CARLOS JASSO
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Copyright: AFP or licensors
Caption: (FILES) Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is handed a sign by Dan Jukes as he poses for members of the media at a photo shoot to publicise a slogan ahead of the local elections in May, in central London on April 10, 2026. Two senior officials resigned from Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK on September 4, 2026, as the scandal-hit party was reported to the police over fresh allegations it flouted donations rules. Farage’s long-term aide Dan Jukes and Reform’s head of policy James Orr stepped down, the party said, adding that it had launched a probe into the allegations revealed in an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News. (Photo by Henry NICHOLLS / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: HENRY NICHOLLS
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Copyright: AFP or licensors
In one section of footage, Jukes appeared to suggest that Reform was receiving donations from undisclosed sources channelled via family members – something which is against the law.
Controversy mounts
Farage is already facing controversy over his decision to accept an undisclosed £5m “gift” from the crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne.
He also faces questions about whether he received undeclared support from convicted fraudster George Cottrell, as well as an investigation by the Met Police into whether party payments before the last election complied with electoral law. All involved deny wrongdoing.
The party has dipped in the polls. This time last year, it was riding high on an average of about 30 per cent – far ahead of Labour and the other parties. Now it’s at about 23 per cent and Labour has inched in front.
Reform’s response
“Make no mistake, this was an exercise in entrapment. Let me be clear, the party has done nothing wrong, taken no illegal money. In fact, no money was taken at all.”
Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking at his party’s annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham (Photo: AP)
In July, nine countries – Greece, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Switzerland and the Netherlands – called the loophole’s planned end “a source of serious and legitimate concern” in a letter to European Commissioner for Internal and Migration Affairs Magnus Brunner.
Asked about the matter during a press briefing this week, the European Commission said it was in “close and constructive contact” with the “few member states where some adjustments are needed at certain border crossing points”.
It added that there was a “strong joint will” to make the system work and that the Commission was ready to provide “additional support” to affected member states which could include “operational assistance” and additional officers being deployed.
With the EES system set to resume in full from next week, here are some of the cities where long queues could await British travellers.
Queues could last ‘as long as five hours’ at Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam
John Sullivan, commercial director of Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK’s largest consortium of independent travel business, said the need to address the problems surrounding EES is becoming “increasingly urgent”.
“Although some airports may have the technology, staffing and processes in place to ensure the system operates with limited disruption, the European Commission cannot overlook the fact that nine member states are questioning its claims that the EES rollout is proceeding as planned,” he told The i Paper.
Sullivan suggested that British passengers at airports in capital cities such as Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam could face lengthy waits when the EES checks resume.
“With some of Europe’s busiest airports, including Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam, still facing the possibility of queues lasting as long as five hours, the immediate priority must be resolving the problems already being experienced before adding further layers of bureaucracy,” he said.
“People spend months looking forward to and saving for their holidays, and they should be able to enjoy that time creating memories rather than being stuck in airport queues.
“The decision to postpone the introduction of ETIAS later this year demonstrates that pragmatic action is possible when necessary. The ongoing issues with EES now require the same level of urgency.”
Which other airports could be affected?
Earlier this summer, budget airline Ryanair identified seven popular European airports where passengers were already suffering long delays due to the EU border checks.
The airline said airports which were particularly struggling with EES were Spain’s Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante and Malaga, Milan Bergamo in Italy, Krakow in Poland and France’s Paris Beauvais.
These sites were “not ready” to manage the high passenger volumes during the peak summer season because of “insufficient staff, kiosks and system readiness,” Ryanair added.
Popular destinations for British travellers such as Palma de Mallorca and Alicante “have been affected quite greatly,” Andrew Harrison-Chinn, chief marketing officer of travel benefits platform Dragonpass, told The i Paper in June.
Typical “bottleneck” destinations were smaller airports that see a large volume of British or other non-EU travellers, but lack the necessary infrastructure to efficiently channel arrivals through the system, Harrison-Chinn added.
Passengers at larger European airports including Amsterdam, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Zurich have also been hit with long wait times since the new system was rolled out, particularly during peak travel times such as early mornings and weekends.
Other airports which have been forced to temporarily suspend EES due to travel chaos, or where passengers have missed flights due to hours-long border queues earlier this year, include Lisbon and Milan Linate.
Passengers have been stranded due to their flight leaving without them at other airports including Athens, from where a London Luton-bound flight reportedly left without dozens of passengers in June.
The worries expressed by countries like Greece, which see high levels of travellers from the UK, raise the question of whether airports which struggled to cope with passenger traffic will have gained the capabilities to better handle demand by the time the EES checks resume from 7 September.