{"id":31951,"date":"2026-05-30T10:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/31951\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:22:09","slug":"new-border-control-warning-for-britons-heading-to-europe-on-holiday-this-summer-spain-still-under-pressure-to-lift-new-ees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/31951\/","title":{"rendered":"New border control warning for Britons heading to Europe on holiday this summer: Spain still under pressure to lift new EES"},"content":{"rendered":"

The headache of the new EES<\/a> entry\/exit border controls for Britons and other non-European travellers is getting worse and airlines are repeating calls for EES to be lifted until after the summer<\/a>. British holidaymakers have been told that they should arrive at European airports three hours before their flight home departs due to lengthy queues caused by new border checks, the UK boss of budget airline Wizz Air has warned.<\/p>\n

Yvonne Moynihan told the BBC the long delays getting through passport control<\/a> at some European airports had caused some passengers to miss return or connecting flights. And the airline and travel industries saw these problem coming months ago. According to The Connexion Britons can again use PARAFE e-gates where these are available at borders, the French government has confirmed.<\/p>\n

This is now said to be possible for visitors who need to register in the European Entry\/Exit System (EES) digital borders scheme as well as for nationals of the same countries who are residents of France with valid visas or residency cards.<\/p>\n

ACI EUROPE (Airports Council International), A4E (Airlines for Europe) and IATA (International Air Transport Association) warned months ago that the Schengen Entry\/Exit System (EES) continues to cause significant delays for passengers. Failing immediate action to provide sufficient flexibility, severe disruptions over the peak summer months are a real prospect, with queues potentially reaching 4 hours or more.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to Magnus Brunner, EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, airports and airlines the group pointed out: Signal persistent excessive waiting times of up to 2 hours at airport border control as mandated in the current stage of the EES progressive rollout (that 35% of all third country nationals entering the Schengen zone must be registered).<\/p>\n

Identify three critical issues that are compounding EES delays: chronic border control understaffing, unresolved technology issues, especially with regard to border automation, and the very limited uptake of the Frontex pre-registration app by Schengen states.<\/p>\n

Warn that unless immediate action is taken to resolve these critical issues, mandatory EES registrations of all border crossings during the peak summer season, in particular in July and August, would result in waiting times of up to 4 hours or more.<\/p>\n

Urge the European Commission to confirm that Schengen Member States will retain the ability to partially or totally suspend EES until the end of October 2026. Under the progressive approach set out by Regulation 2025\/1534, the suspension mechanisms would no longer be available beyond early July. Today, it remains unclear whether such suspension could still be activated with the necessary flexibility under the conditions set by the Schengen Border Control Code for the relaxation of border control checks.<\/p>\n

Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE, Ourania Georgoutsakou, Managing Director of A4E and Thomas Reynaert, SVP External Affairs of IATA, said: \u201cThere is a complete disconnect between the perception of the EU institutions that EES is working well, and the reality, which is that non EU travellers are experiencing massive delays and inconvenience. This must come to an end immediately.<\/p>\n

“We need to be realistic about what will happen during the peak summer months, when traffic at Europe\u2019s airports doubles. The rollout of EES must be flexible to react to operational realities. This is an absolute prerequisite for its success \u2013 and for safeguarding the reputation of the EU as an efficient, welcoming and desirable destination.\u201d And with Spain<\/a> still the top destination for Britons, pressure on the Spanish to take action is mounting ahead of the school holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headache of the new EES entry\/exit border controls for Britons and other non-European travellers is getting worse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[596,12083,6943,1254,1998,1391,8625,6942,598,599,600,1393,2875,17,603,357],"class_list":["post-31951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-airport","tag-airport-chaos","tag-airport-queues","tag-balearics","tag-border-control","tag-british-tourists","tag-ees","tag-eu-entry-exit-system","tag-holiday","tag-majorca","tag-mallorca","tag-palma-airport","tag-passport-control","tag-spain","tag-summer","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}