Overview
- Greeks’ Foreign Ministry said no nationalities are exempt from the Entry/Exit System, reversing earlier talk of fast‑tracking British visitors.
- EES records fingerprints and a face photo for non‑EU travellers and recent reports cite queues of up to three hours at airports in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy.
- Airports and governments are using short, local pauses allowed under EU rules to clear backlogs, with Italy suspending EES until 30 September 2026 and Rome Fiumicino briefly switching back to manual checks.
- Disruption is hitting passengers, with British flyers in Ibiza forced to queue twice after kiosk failures and more than 100 easyJet customers missing a Milan Linate flight because of passport control delays.
- Pressure to ease enforcement is building as a Booking.com poll finds 59% of UK travellers expect delays and Ryanair warns waits in Portugal could reach 2.5 hours.