Airports and Airlines Hand Brussels a Six-Point Plan to Fix EU Entry/Exit System Border Queues

Rajkumar Agarwal17 October 20268 min read0 viewsPassenger Experience
Airports and Airlines Hand Brussels a Six-Point Plan to Fix EU Entry/Exit System Border Queues

Travellers arriving in the Schengen area from outside the European Union have spent much of 2026 facing a new kind of border check, and the airports and airlines that carry them say it is still not working as promised. On 12 October 2026, the airport body ACI Europe and the airline association Airlines for Europe (A4E) published a joint statement arguing that the Entry/Exit System (EES) will not stop causing disruption unless the European Commission and member states fix structural problems. They attached a six-point plan.

The statement landed one day before travel association Abta presented survey results that paint a milder picture of the passenger experience, and a few weeks after the EU quietly let several countries keep suspending parts of the checks.

What the system does

The Entry/Exit System is an automated IT system that registers non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay each time they cross the external borders of 29 European countries, according to the European Commission's home affairs pages. It is developed and managed by eu-LISA, the EU's IT agency.

For each traveller it records name and travel document data, biometric data in the form of fingerprints and a captured facial image, the date and place of entry and exit, and any refusal of entry. Since 10 April 2026 it has replaced passport stamping. One stated aim is to detect automatically people who overstay their authorised period. The Commission also describes it as a way to identify forged or fake documents more efficiently and to allow wider use of automated and self-service border control.

The timeline is long. The Commission presented the proposal on 6 April 2016, and the EES Regulation was adopted on 20 November 2017. A regulation on a progressive start was adopted in July 2025, and the Commission set 12 October 2025 as the launch date for that progressive start. The system was declared fully operational on 10 April 2026.

In practice, the biometric step takes place at border kiosks and is matched against central records. Border guards must still create digital files and log passport movements, according to reporting by Biometric Update. Some member states, it notes, such as Sweden and Portugal, let travellers pre-register biometric data through apps linked to the central portal.

What ACI Europe and A4E said on 12 October

The joint statement, issued in Brussels, says border waiting times remain excessive nearly six months after full implementation. Waits reach up to five hours at peak times in the most extreme cases and routinely exceed two hours. The two groups say long queues cause passengers to miss flights and connections, congest terminals, and strain border guards as well as airport and airline staff.

They name four structural problems they say they have been warning about for months:

  • inadequate border control staffing;
  • instability in the IT systems behind the EES;
  • limited deployment and use of self-service kiosks and automated border control (ABC) gates;
  • limited functionality and deployment of the Travel to Europe pre-registration app.

The statement credits border control authorities with considerable efforts, with full support from airports. It also acknowledges that the EES has strengthened external border security. But the signatories, ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec and A4E Managing Director Ourania Georgoutsakou, say it is not delivering efficient crossings or the faster, seamless travel that was promised. The problem, they argue, is no longer a "teething problem", and the time for managing symptoms is over.

The six-point plan

The groups ask the Commission and member states to implement six measures at the earliest opportunity, in full cooperation with industry. The stated aim is to reduce operational constraints, streamline biometric and data processes, expand remote pre-enrolment and automated border control, and allow operational flexibility during exceptional or sustained congestion.

  1. Eliminate double verification. Duplicate verification steps at the border should be removed.
  2. Optimise biometric verification. The procedures for checking a traveller's biometrics should be improved.
  3. Prevent duplicate EES profiles. The groups want to stop multiple profiles from being created for the same traveller.
  4. Rethink and upgrade the Travel to Europe app and web portal. This is the route for pre-registration, which the groups want to see work better and be deployed more widely.
  5. Accelerate and harmonise automated border control for third-country nationals. The aim is faster, more consistent use of ABC gates across airports.
  6. Restore the ability to partially suspend the EES. During excessive waiting times, biometric registration would be suspended, and the groups want this as a permanent flexibility mechanism.

The suspension flexibility, and why it matters

The sixth request goes to the heart of a dispute that has run through the summer. Euronews reported on 8 September that temporary EU flexibility, under which member states could suspend fingerprint and facial scans in exceptional circumstances to ease congestion, expired on 6 September. Industry bodies wanted it extended, warning of renewed delays.

The same report said ACI had recorded waits of up to five hours in July, with Lisbon, Milan, Rome and Kraków airports hit especially hard. It attributed much of the disruption to malfunctioning kiosks, low staffing and general system glitches. Ryanair's chief operating officer, Neal McMahon, criticised the rollout from start to finish and urged an extension until at least April 2027. The chief executive of Holiday Extras, Matthew Pack, said the border systems had failed and called for the system to be rolled back and rebuilt. A European Commission spokesperson said, by contrast, that the system had broadly worked well over the summer and that the Commission was in close contact with the few member states needing adjustments.

Biometric Update reported on 14 September that at least nine countries had since received informal approval to keep using the flexibility, with no new deadline: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Switzerland. It said the grace period expired on 6 September after the EU had said there would be no extension. France's interior ministry confirmed that flexibility for pre-registration kiosks and tablets would remain until the end of the year, the report said, adding that checks would be applied unevenly across French crossings until the technology stabilises. The Commission declined to comment at the time.

Abta, citing the Commission's position, said the Commission will not start infringement proceedings against any member state that suspends checks for the rest of 2026. Abta called that approach pragmatic and sensible.

That arrangement explains why the groups want a permanent mechanism. Under the present informal approach, relief is tied to the end of 2026. A permanent right to pause biometric registration when queues build would remove the uncertainty for airports planning staffing and terminal operations.

The other side: what travellers told Abta

Abta presented its Holiday Habits survey at its Travel Convention in Madeira, as reported by TTG Media on 13 October. The survey covered more than 2,000 respondents.

  • Only 6% said the EES made them much less likely to travel to the EU.
  • 46% of those travelling to Europe had been through the EES since the EU began rolling it out late last year.
  • Of those, 50% reported queues under 30 minutes, and 87% reported queues under an hour.
  • Eight in ten respondents said the EES caused no knock-on issues for their travel plans. The most common disruption this year was delayed transfers.

The survey measures British holidaymakers' own reports, and it is not directly comparable with the ACI figures, which describe peak-period maximums at airports and border points that were hardest hit. The two sets of numbers are not contradictory: a majority of travellers can pass quickly while a smaller group at specific locations at specific times face very long waits. Neither source gives a share of travellers affected by the longest delays.

Abta's Director of Public Affairs, Luke Petherbridge, said the EU cannot roll the system out fully until it is stable and efficient, because people must not be deterred. Abta wants the contingency measures extended into 2027. The report did not specify what those measures contain beyond the suspension of checks.

ETIAS: still no date

The same coverage addressed the companion scheme, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), a visa-waiver authorisation. It was due to launch in the fourth quarter of 2026 and had been expected in 2026. According to Abta, the date has been removed from all EU websites and there is no official launch date. Abta said it expects an update in the coming months. Biometric Update reported the same removal of the timeline from EU websites.

For passengers, the practical point is that no ETIAS application is currently required or available.

What to watch

Three questions remain open after the 12 October statement. The first is whether the Commission accepts any of the six requests, in particular a permanent suspension mechanism. The Commission's public line, as of its September comments, was that the system had broadly worked well and that it was talking to the few states that needed adjustments. The second is whether the end-of-2026 limit on the informal flexibility is extended, as Abta and ACI have urged. The third is the ETIAS launch, which has no date.

None of the reports reviewed contains a Commission response to the 12 October plan.

Sources

#border control#Schengen#Entry/Exit System#EES#ETIAS#Abta#passenger queues#ACI Europe#Airlines for Europe
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