The safety valve that kept Europe's airports moving through a grim summer has just been switched off. On 6 September, the EU's temporary flexibility measures for its Entry/Exit System (EES) lapsed, and travel industry figures are warning that the long queues, missed flights and hours-long waits could return.
The EES, which launched in October last year, requires non-EU travellers to register fingerprints and facial scans at the border. The emergency rules allowed individual member states to suspend biometric registration when things got jammed — and things got very jammed. Wait times reportedly hit five hours at some airports in July, with Lisbon, Milan, Rome and Krakow among the worst affected. Malfunctioning self-service kiosks, understaffed border posts and general teething problems all played a part.
Now the pressure is on Brussels to bring those flexibilities back. Ryanair, which has criticised the system since day one, has been blunt about it. The airline's chief operating officer Neal McMahon called the EU's handling of the rollout "a shambles from start to finish", saying airlines, airports and border authorities had repeatedly warned that the system wasn't ready. He wants the flexibility extended to at least April 2027, arguing that passengers shouldn't pay the price for a botched rollout.
Holiday Extras CEO Matthew Pack went further, arguing there are effectively two EU borders: the smooth-running one described in official announcements, and the real one on the ground, improvised by overstretched border guards, where nothing works as planned. His verdict: the system should be rolled back and rebuilt properly.
The EU Commission, for its part, sees it differently. A spokesperson insisted the system "broadly worked well over the summer" and said the bloc is in close contact with the handful of member states needing adjustments — though the powers to suspend biometrics expired on 6 September regardless.
Why should holidaymakers care? If you're a non-EU citizen — for example, travelling on a UK, US or other third-country passport — the EES applies to you. With the flexibility clause gone, every port of entry is supposed to capture biometrics as standard, and any airport with patchy kiosks or thin staffing is exposed. If you're flying into Europe over the coming months, building extra buffer time into connections and arrival plans is a sensible move, especially at the airports that struggled most this summer. Watch this space: if industry lobbying succeeds, some of the pressure could ease again — but as of now, there's no extension in place.