Airports and airlines have warned of Easter travel chaos as a deadline for full implementation of new border checks for non-EU citizens kicks in today.
The Entry-Exit System (EES) for travel to the Schengen area requires third-party nationals – including British citizens – to have facial photos and fingerprints taken on arrival at EU borders.
The phased launch of the system, which started in October and has led to airport queues of up to seven hours, ends during the peak Easter holidays, sparking fears of major delays from increased processing times.
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ACI Europe, which represents airports across the continent, and Airlines for Europe (A4E), a trade body for major carriers, called on the European Commission and member states to continue allowing the full suspension of EES, a move which had avoided “catastrophic” disruption since the system launched.
This week, Belgium announced it was suspending the introduction of EES due to unacceptable waiting times. At the same time, problems with French technology have stopped the full rollout of the checks for car passengers at Dover and Eurotunnel.
Europe’s airports and airlines expressed “serious concern” about travel chaos for the upcoming summer season – and for the next few weeks as holidaymakers head abroad during the bumper Easter travel period.
EasyJet said this Easter was set to be its busiest on record, with almost 30,000 flights and 5.2 million seats across Europe during the two‑week school break.
The budget carrier said Tenerife, Lanzarote, Alicante and Malaga are among the most popular destinations – all of which have already been hit by long EES queues in recent months.
Passengers arriving at Malaga airport were among those stuck in long delays due to EES border checks (Photo: John Calladine)
Passenger data during the phased EES launch showed a “continued deterioration” in waiting times at border points due to biometric checks, ACI Europe and A4E said.
Problems causing delays include shortages of border control staff, technical issues with self-service kiosks, and limited use of automated border control (ABC) gates.
Exacerbating the hold-ups, an EES pre-registration app, which allows passengers to log their facial photo and passport data before travelling, is currently only being used by Sweden and Portugal.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, and Ourania Georgoutsakou, managing director of A4E, said: “Passengers entering the Schengen area are likely to wait even longer at border control during Easter due to the persisting operational challenges around the EES rollout.”
From 31 March, all third-country nationals should undergo EES checks on arrival and departure. Before Tuesday, the requirement was for at least half of passengers to be registered.
The transition period, allowing for member states to fully suspend the checks, ends on 9 April, with airlines and airports warning that this removes a key safeguard for managing peak demand.
Manual stamping of passports is also due to end on 9 April.
Several airports across Europe have had to partially or fully suspend the EES, including in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, an ACI Europe spokesperson said.
Of those, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Italy have seen some of the longest waiting times.
Brussels Airport reported queues of two to three hours at peak times, Athens International Airport and Faro Airport saw logjams of more than two hours, while Frankfurt Airport said passengers were stuck for up to 125 minutes.
ACI Europe and A4E leaders said: “We reiterate our call on the European Commission and Member States to extend the possibility to fully or partially suspend EES – where operationally necessary – during the entirety of the 2026 summer season.
“This flexibility has proven vital in preventing catastrophic operational disruptions during the progressive rollout of the system.”
If technical and operational issues with EES are not resolved that flexibility should remain available during future peak travel periods, such as winter 2026/2027, they added.
A partial suspension of EES means passengers are still registered, but none of their biometric is captured, whereas a full suspension means no data at all would be captured.
Normalising waiting times of one hour or more at Schengen borders undermined passenger experience and the efficiency of Europe’s air transport system, the trade bodies cautioned.
The European Commission says the rollout of EES is “progressing well” with most member states already registering over 75 per cent of border crossings.
A spokesperson said: “But in a few member states, technical difficulties have been detected.
“The Commission is in close contact with these member states. We continue to monitor very closely the state of play of their national implementation.”
The Commission said member states can still partially suspend registration of EES biometric data until September.
Data can also be manually uploaded if the system is temporarily not working at a border point.
In both these instances, passports would need to continue being stamped.