Families heading to Europe this summer could face “queue chaos” under the EU’s new digital border system, Ryanair has warned, as the European Commission scrambles to convene an urgent meeting with the air industry next Tuesday.
The warning comes as Aletta von Massenbach, boss of Berlin Airport, told the BBC that non-EU nationals were already queuing for up to two hours at one terminal – a situation she described as “not bearable over the summer”.
“Ryanair warns of summer queue chaos at EU airports as EES fingerprint checks cause long delays, spurring urgent EU meeting.”
Ryanair’s chief operations officer, Neal McMahon, said passengers should not be used as “guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer.”
The airline listed seven airports already experiencing major disruptions: Tenerife South, Palma, Alicante, Málaga, Milan Bergamo, Krakow and Paris Beauvais. “Further congestion is expected,” it said, as the holiday season intensifies.
Under the Entry-Exit System (EES), which became fully operational in April after years of delays, travellers from outside the bloc must register fingerprints and facial images when entering most EU countries, with checks repeated on departure. The system is meant to modernise border control and improve security, but has produced regular reports of long waits at peak times.
Industry bodies including Airlines for Europe and Airports Council International have asked the European Commission to suspend the checks “at least throughout July and August”, and potentially for a full year. Ryanair has separately urged suspension until September in the “most exposed countries”, arguing that infrastructure is “not ready to manage the high passenger volumes expected” from mid-July.
At the Port of Dover, where French border checks take place, a new processing area with 84 kiosks to record biometrics lies unused because the technology – the responsibility of French authorities – cannot be activated. Doug Bannister, the port’s chief executive, told MPs on Thursday that “time is rapidly running out” to fix the issue before the summer peak.
Von Massenbach pointed to another problem: different EU member states use different systems. “There are so many sub-systems for each and every member state,” she told the BBC. “The complexity doesn’t really support smooth processing at the border.”
The European Commission has said it is willing to offer more support. But with the summer rush already building, airport and airline bosses warn that without a pause, travellers face what Ryanair calls “unnecessary stress” – and potentially missed holidays.