Over the past month, the DFNI team has travelled through Barcelona, Zurich, Vilnius, Mallorca, Mykonos and Basel. As British passport holders, we are now treated as third-country nationals under the European Union’s Entry/Exit System (EES), and the delays we encountered ranged from around an hour to, in the worst instances, nearly three.
Our experience was not isolated. Since becoming fully operational in April, the biometric border system has been blamed for lengthy queues at several European airports, with passengers reporting missed flights and highly inconsistent processing times.
EES requires non-EU nationals travelling for short stays to have passport information and biometric data, including fingerprints and facial images, registered when crossing the external borders of participating European countries. The long-term objective may be a more efficient, digitised border, but the immediate passenger experience has too often been one of confusion and frustration.
Ahead of the peak summer holiday period, the question for airports, airlines and travellers is whether the system can be stabilised quickly enough.
ACI Europe President Stefan Schulte issued a stark warning at the association’s annual congress in Prague, saying passengers were already “queueing for hours at peak traffic times”.
“I just do not know how we will be able to cope in the coming weeks with the expected increase in traffic,” he said, urging politicians to stop pretending EES was “working just fine”.
Travel retail’s representative bodies have also raised their concerns directly with European policymakers. In April, the European Travel Retail Confederation (ETRC) and Duty Free World Council (DFWC) wrote jointly to the European Commission’s directorates-general for migration and home affairs and transport and mobility, highlighting the effect of EES disruption on airport retail sales and supporting calls from airports for greater flexibility in the rules.
ETRC has continued its engagement with policymakers and through the European Tourism Manifesto, an alliance of more than 70 public and private organisations representing the European tourism value chain.
“We at the European Travel Retail Confederation are extremely concerned about the disruption to travellers’ journeys through European airports since the end of the progressive start of the Entry/Exit System on 9 April,” Julie Lassaigne, Secretary General, ETRC told DFNI.
Julie Lassaigne
“Passenger delays at borders mean that once through security, they have no time to shop or eat on arriving airside. We are particularly worried that, should the disruption continue as we head into the peak summer traffic season, the revenue losses already witnessed will only become significantly greater.
“We have written to the European Commission to highlight the negative impact the disruption is causing to vital non-aeronautical revenue for airports through the loss of duty free and travel retail sales. We continue engaging with our partners in the tourism industry to advocate for immediate action to ensure that EES can be implemented without undermining travellers’ experience or Europe’s competitiveness as a destination.”
The possible effects on airport retail are twofold.
Passengers who have experienced serious delays on arrival may become considerably more cautious on their return journey. They are likely to arrive earlier but could also prioritise reaching passport control over browsing stores, visiting lounges or sitting down for a meal.
That risk is particularly acute at airports where a substantial portion of the commercial offer is positioned before outbound passport control. Retailers may have passengers physically present in the terminal for longer, but anxiety about an unpredictable queue is unlikely to create the relaxed mindset associated with browsing, discovery and discretionary spending.
Indeed, some travel companies are explicitly advising holidaymakers to complete security and passport formalities before shopping or dining. One widely circulated warning told travellers that “the shops, restaurants and lounges can wait” until they have passed border control.
That may be sensible passenger advice, but it is hardly a positive message for airport commercial partners.
There is, of course, another possible outcome. Travellers may respond by arriving much earlier and, once safely through the relevant controls, find themselves with additional dwell time. Airports with strong retail and food and beverage offers beyond passport control could potentially benefit.
However, that opportunity depends upon passengers knowing where checks are located, receiving accurate information and trusting that they have sufficient time. Uncertainty is the enemy of conversion.
There may also be broader consequences for European tourism. Connectivity provider Airalo claims its UK customer data shows strong growth for destinations including South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. The suggestion that travellers are abandoning Europe en masse should be treated cautiously, but the direction of travel is noteworthy. Europe is already competing with destinations that offer compelling value, distinctive experiences and, in some cases, simpler entry arrangements.
Personally, after several exhausting journeys, I have already begun reconsidering some European travel plans.
EES is fundamentally a border-management issue, but its impact does not stop at passport control. If the system discourages travel, disrupts passenger flows or tells travellers to bypass shops and restaurants, it becomes a travel retail issue too. There needs to be greater flexibility, clearer communication and urgent action before the summer rush begins.