EU border chaos: Milan stranding
- Europe’s new Entry/Exit System is causing major passport delays, leaving more than 100 passengers stranded at Milan Linate. (travelandtourworld.com) - Airlines reported passengers left behind on routes including Milan Bergamo to Manchester amid the passport‑control bottlenecks. (birminghammail.co.uk) - Governments and carriers are scrambling to respond as the EES rollout pushes extra processing time through major EU airports. ( )
More than 100 passengers were stranded at Milan Linate after new European Union border checks slowed passport control and left some travelers stuck at the gate. (travelandtourworld.com) The holdup is tied to the Entry/Exit System, a new European Union database that records non-EU travelers’ entries and exits with passport details, fingerprints and facial images instead of manual passport stamps. The European Commission said the system became fully operational across all Schengen countries on April 10, 2026. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) The Commission said the system applies at the external borders of 29 European countries using the scheme, and it records refusals of entry as well as arrivals and departures. It said more than 52 million entries and exits had already been logged since the rollout began in October 2025. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu; home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) Airlines have been warning passengers that the extra checks can add time on both arrival and departure. Jet2 said UK and other non-EU passport holders may face longer waits than usual, and Ryanair posted a notice saying passport-control queues have increased because of Entry/Exit System checks. (jet2.com; ryanair.com) The operational burden is no longer only on border officers. eu-LISA, the European Union agency that runs the system, said that as of April 10, 2026, air, sea and international coach operators must perform pre-departure checks for some visa-holding third-country nationals traveling into the Schengen Area. (eulisa.europa.eu) That change followed a phased launch that started on October 12, 2025 and ran for 180 days before full deployment. The European Commission said the phased approach was adopted in 2025 through temporary derogations designed to ease the start of operations. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu; eulisa.europa.eu) For travelers, the first trip is the slowest one. Jet2 said first-time users may need to stop at a self-service kiosk to register biometric data, while later trips can use a passport scan plus either biometrics or a photo for up to three years or until the passport expires. (jet2.com) European Union officials say the system is meant to spot overstays, document fraud and security risks faster than passport stamping. The Commission said the database had already recorded more than 27,000 refusals of entry and identified more than 700 people as security risks by April 10. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) At Milan, the immediate effect was simpler than the policy goal: slower lines, missed departures and passengers left behind while airports and airlines adjusted to a system that is now mandatory across the Schengen border. (travelandtourworld.com; home-affairs.ec.europa.eu)
