The EU digital border scheme is causing three-hour waits at passport control as officials struggle with a 70 per cent increase in the time taken to carry out border checks, says the group representing Europe’s airports.
Airports Council International (ACI) in Brussels is calling for an urgent review of the entry-exit system (EES), which began its rollout across Europe in October.
During the six-month introduction, third-country nationals such as British travellers continue to have their passports examined and stamped by frontier staff. But in addition, the EES requires fingerprints to be registered and a facial biometric to be taken. Many airports have had kiosks installed for that purpose.
At present, only one in 10 travellers is required to undergo digital registration. From 9 January 2026, the proportion will rise to 35 per cent.
But Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI in Europe, warned: “Significant discomfort is already being inflicted upon travellers, and airport operations are being impacted, with the current threshold for registering third-country nationals set at only 10 per cent.
Read more: I am travelling to the EU. What has changed with the entry-exit system?
“Unless all the operational issues we are raising today are fully resolved within the coming weeks, increasing this registration threshold to 35 per cent as of 9 January – as required by the EES implementation calendar – will inevitably result in much more severe congestion and systemic disruption for airports and airlines. This will possibly involve serious safety hazards.
“The EES cannot be about mayhem for travellers and chaos at our airports.”
ACI says the worst impact is being felt at airports in France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The group is calling for the rollout schedule – which is due to be completed by 9 April 2026 – to be moderated. It highlights several operational issues with the deployment of the EES:
- “Regular EES outages undermining the predictability, regularity and resilience of border operations”
- “Persistent EES configuration problems, including the partial deployment or unavailability of self-service kiosks used by travellers for registration and biometric data capture”
- “Unavailability of an effective pre-registration app”
- “Insufficient deployment of border guards at airports, which reflects acute staff shortages”
A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “The entry-exit system was successfully launched across member states in a progressive approach on 12 October 2025. Since its start, the system has operated largely without issues, and any initial challenges typical of new systems have been effectively addressed.
“Member states have exceeded the initial 10 per cent registration threshold, even surpassing the next threshold, with already more than 50 per cent of estimated arrivals registered. Any concerns about potential issues at the 35 per cent registration threshold have therefore been disproven. Processing times have further improved as border guards are gaining experience and procedures are being refined.
“To date, no significant queues at the external borders of the Schengen area have been linked to the EES, apart from in limited specific cases where the processing time for passengers slightly increased at certain airports.
“In all other instances where queues have formed, member states confirmed these were due to other factors. To this day, no member state has reported or confirmed the claim that border-control processing times at airports increased by up to 70 per cent, with waiting times up to three hours during peak traffic periods, due to the introduction of the EES.
“It is important to underline that, thanks to the progressive launch of the system, member states have the tools necessary to manage potential extended queues. It allows for partial or full suspension of the system in exceptional circumstances. This can be employed to address challenges, particularly during peak holiday periods, until processes are fully optimised.
“The commission is monitoring very closely both the compliance with the legal bases and the operations of the EES at central level, and the impact at the borders at national level. We are also actively working with member states to facilitate the sharing of best practices.”
Dr Nick Brown, a data scientist who has studied the entry-exit system in detail, told The Independent: “The airports have had a long time to prepare, including an extra year (compared to the initial launch) during which they already had the kiosks and could have run any number of simulations and tests with volunteers.”
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