Overview
- Airport operators and airline groups this week formally warned Brussels that the Entry‑Exit System (EES) has produced queues of up to five hours at some hubs, and they asked for temporary suspension or greater flexibility during the summer peak.
- Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged technical problems and said the Commission would work with member states to resolve them, remarks reported on Friday that followed industry appeals for urgent action.
- Reported failures include missing or defective self‑service kiosks, delayed software updates and fingerprint readers that fail when passengers have sweaty fingers, all of which slow the one‑time biometric capture required for non‑Schengen short stays.
- Several countries and airports have already used EU rules that allow short, repeatable suspensions of biometric capture when capacity is exceeded, leaving passengers exposed to long waits, missed connections and no automatic compensation for border delays.
- Separately some airports are deploying local fixes to speed processing — for example Vienna introduced 3D hand‑luggage scanners and relaxed liquid rules on July 4 — but the broader EES infrastructure and wider roll‑out of the pre‑registration app remain incomplete and closely watched for economic and reputational risk to summer travel.