EU's entry system snarls Paris, Rome queues
- The European Union’s Entry/Exit System became fully operational on April 10, and airports from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Rome Fiumicino quickly reported long biometric-control queues and missed flights. - Industry groups said waits reached three hours in the first weekend, while one easyJet flight from Milan to Manchester departed with only 34 of 156 booked passengers onboard. - The system replaces passport stamps for short-stay non-EU travelers across 29 countries and adds fingerprint and facial-image checks after a phased rollout that began in October 2025. (ec.europa.eu)
The European Union’s new Entry/Exit System went fully live on April 10, and border queues quickly stretched at major hubs including Paris and Rome. (ec.europa.eu) (politico.eu) The system replaces passport stamps with digital entry and exit records for short-stay non-EU travelers. It also records a facial image, fingerprints and passport data at the border. (ec.europa.eu) The European Commission said the Entry/Exit System started operating on October 12, 2025, and became fully operational across 29 European countries on April 10, 2026. eu-LISA, the bloc’s large-scale technology agency, said the rollout concluded after a 180-day implementation phase. (ec.europa.eu) (eulisa.europa.eu) The first full weekend brought the clearest signs of strain. Politico reported that lines at Rome Fiumicino occasionally extended outside the terminal building, citing Stefano Paoloni of Italy’s Autonomous Police Union. (politico.eu) Euronews reported queues of up to three hours and stranded passengers, while The Points Guy said some travelers missed flights after waiting to clear the new checks. (euronews.com) (thepointsguy.com) One of the sharpest examples came in Milan. An easyJet flight to Manchester left with 34 of 156 booked passengers onboard, leaving 122 behind after long border queues. (thepointsguy.com) (bbc.co.uk) Airports Council International Europe and Airlines for Europe said the launch weekend produced “significant disruption” and asked Brussels to allow full or partial suspension of the system where waits become excessive. Airlines for Europe later called the rollout a “systemic failure.” (euronews.com) (aci-europe.org) The Commission’s position was that implementation on the ground belongs to member states. Its spokesperson Markus Lammert told Politico that national authorities are responsible for making the system work at border posts and airports. (politico.eu) The European Commission has defended the system as a security tool. By March 30, before full deployment, it said the database had already logged more than 45 million border crossings, refused entry to more than 24,000 people and identified more than 600 people it said posed a security risk. (ec.europa.eu) For travelers, the practical change is that first-time registration now takes longer because fingerprints and a facial image must be captured before the crossing is logged. The summer test for Europe’s airports is whether those extra minutes per passenger keep turning into hours in line. (ec.europa.eu) (euronews.com)
