Schengen EES causing delays
The EU’s new Entry/Exit System rollout is producing longer waits at major European airports, and aviation bodies are calling for a summer suspension to prevent multi‑hour queues over Easter travel peaks. The friction is tied to biometric checks and new digital processing workflows. (travelandtourworld.com) (travelweekly.co.uk)
ACI EUROPE, Airlines for Europe (A4E) and IATA sent a joint letter to Commissioner Magnus Brunner on 11 February 2026 seeking the ability to partially or fully suspend EES through October 2026 and warning queues could reach four hours or more. (iata.org)) ACI’s monitoring shows processing times rising by as much as 70% and reports that, at the current 35% rollout threshold, waiting times are “regularly reaching up to two hours” with a risk of four‑hour queues during peak summer months. (aci-europe.org)) The phased EES rollout began on 12 October 2025, with A4E recording the step‑up to 50% mandatory registration on 10 March 2026, a planned move to 100% registration by 31 March, and the formal end of the transition period on 9–10 April 2026. (a4e.eu)) Airports and airlines point to three operational drivers of the delays: chronic border‑control understaffing, repeated self‑service kiosk and central IT problems, and very limited uptake of the Frontex pre‑registration app by member states. (aci-europe.org)) Concrete disruption examples include Geneva Airport, where arrivals faced multi‑hour queues (reports of two to four‑hour spikes in winter 2025–26), and instances of extreme backlogs reported at Lisbon after software rollout issues. (thelocal.ch)) The European Commission has confirmed legal flexibilities that allow member states to partially suspend EES for an initial 90‑day period after the April rollout, with a possible 60‑day extension to cover the summer peak, a measure the Commission says is foreseen in current regulation. (biometricupdate.com))
