Passengers are being forced to queue for up to five hours at European airports as the rollout of a new biometric border check system leaves flights departing half empty, airlines and airports have warned. In a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, industry groups representing airports and airlines called for an option to suspend the checks during July and August, saying the situation is set to worsen as airports prepare to handle about 40 million more passengers in the peak summer period than in the previous two months.
“We have reached a critical point,” said ACI Europe, Airlines 4 Europe and the International Air Transport Association. “Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough.” The groups said some travellers have been stuck in queues for up to five hours at peak times, causing planes to delay takeoff or leave without passengers who remain trapped in the check-in halls.
“EU biometric border checks cause five-hour queues; planes leave half-full as industry calls for summer suspension.”
The system, introduced gradually since last October, requires non-EU citizens to register their fingerprints and have a photograph taken upon arrival. But its implementation has been plagued by capacity problems. Greece has already suspended biometric checks for British travellers until September, French police temporarily halted the extra checks at the port of Dover in May, and the head of Rome’s airports warned last week that it would have to suspend the system for non-EU citizens to avoid a disaster over the summer.
“Some international travellers are reconsidering trips to Europe because of the prospect of excessive border delays,” the industry groups said. “This is undermining Europe’s reputation, European tourism and connectivity.” They urged the commission to allow airports to “completely suspend” checks whenever passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities during July and August, calling for “immediate intervention before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season.”