Overview
- Ryanair has written to governments in all 29 countries using the EU Entry/Exit System, calling for a suspension of biometric checks until September.
- The plea follows widespread reports of multi‑hour passport‑control lines and missed flights at hubs such as Paris Charles de Gaulle, Málaga, Lisbon and Milan.
- Greece has temporarily exempted British passport holders from EES biometrics, keeping manual passport stamping to reduce congestion at its airports.
- Airport bodies report under‑staffing, broken kiosks and system crashes as key causes of delays, with temporary pauses to checks reported in Portugal, Italy and at French hubs.
- Travellers describe severe disruption, including a UK family who missed a flight at Paris after queuing for about five hours as officers performed EES tasks manually.