Ryanair, Jet2 and easyJet lobby to delay EU Entry/Exit System rollout
- Ryanair stepped up pressure on April 30, asking France to pause the EU Entry/Exit System until September as summer queues start biting. - The concrete fear is border waits hitting 4 hours in July and August, after airports and airlines warned Brussels in February. - This matters because EES became fully mandatory on April 10, so delays now hit the first real summer stress test.
Airports are running into a very specific summer problem. The EU’s new Entry/Exit System — EES — now requires many non-EU travelers to give facial scans and fingerprints at the border, and airlines think the system is arriving before airports are ready. That turns a border-control upgrade into a holiday-traffic risk. The immediate flashpoint is Ryanair’s push for France to pause the rollout until September, right as Europe heads into peak travel season. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) ### What is EES, exactly? EES is the EU’s new digital border log for short-stay non-EU travelers entering the Schengen area. It replaces passport stamps with an electronic record of entries, exits, refusals, fingerprints, and a facial image. The system started in phased form on October 12, 2025, and became fully operational on April 10, 2026 across 29 European countries. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) ### Why are airlines suddenly angry? Because the first registration is slower than a passport stamp. Airports and airline groups told Brussels in February that border waits were already reaching up to 2 hours under the partial rollout, and they warned that(home-affairs.ec.europa.eu)ober 2026 if operations start breaking down. (iata.org) ### What did Ryanair actually do? Ryanair made the most explicit move. On April 30, it called on the French government to suspend the rollout of EES until September, arguing that passengers — especially families — should not face long passport-control queues during the busiest holiday months. That is more than a generic complaint. It is a direct ask for a country-level delay through summer. (corporate.ryanair.com) ### Where do easyJet and Jet2 fit in? easyJet and Jet2 have not framed it as aggressively in the material I found, but both are clearly preparing passengers for disruption. easyJet updated its travel g(corporate.ryanair.com)time users may need kiosk registration with biometrics. (easyjet.com) ### Why is France such a big deal? Because France is a major gateway. If first-time biometric capture gums up border control there, the effect spills across a huge volume of summer leisure traffic. Ryanair’s ask is basically a bet that a temporary delay is less damaging than trying to force full compliance during the busiest weeks of the year. (corporate.ryanair.com) ### But isn’t the EU saying the system works? Basically, yes. The Commission says EES had already logged more than 45 million border crossings during the phased rollout, refused entry to over 24,000 pe(corporate.ryanair.com)an operations bottleneck that could blow up in summer. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) ### Why does this hit British travelers so hard? Because UK passport holders are now outside the EU and squarely inside the EES process when entering Schengen countries for short stays. Jet2’s guidance is blunt about that. British travelers, along with other non-EU nationals, may need first-time biometric enrollment and should expect longer waits while airports work through the new process. (jet2.com) ### So what’s the real bottom line? The fight is not about whether EES exists. That part is settled. The fight is about timing and flexibility — whether governments should ease off during the summer rush or force the system through its hardest possible debut. If queues keep building, airlines will push harder for pauses. If airports cope, the EU will say the rollout pain was worth it. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu)
