If you’ve been in an airport in the last year, you’ll likely have experienced the new digital Entry Exit System (EES). You’ve probably got some strong opinions on it, too.
Introduced in October 2025, it replaced traditional manual passport stamping with electronic tracking and requires non-EU citizens to register fingerprints and photos when they enter the 29 countries known as the Schengen area.
The idea was to modernise and strengthen border management and security, while also speeding up processing times at borders overall.
Ironically, the EES rollout has at times lengthened this process. Some European airports have seen queues lasting multiple hours at passport control, and in some cases, passengers have even reported missing their flights home.
This is why over the summer, member states were able to partially suspend these digital checks in exceptional circumstances to quicken up the process.
But now, Ryanair has called the EES system a ‘shambles,’ and expressed fresh fears of long queues after the grace period officially ended on Sunday, September 6.
The Irish carrier has called on the EU Commission to immediately extend the Entry/Exit System (EES) derogation until at least April 2027, to ‘prevent severe border control congestion.’
Ryanair’s COO Neal McMahon said: ‘The EU’s handling of EES has been a shambles from start to finish.
‘Airlines, airports and border authorities repeatedly warned Brussels that the rollout was not ready, that it would increase processing times and that it would create excessive queues for passengers. Those warnings were ignored, with EU citizens the ones delayed and disrupted.’
McMahon continued, adding that ‘passengers should not be made to pay the price for the EU’s failed EES rollout.’
Rather, he stressed the extension is necessary so that ‘airports and border authorities have the time needed to fix malfunctioning kiosks, increase staffing levels and ensure the system can operate efficiently before full enforcement is introduced and passengers are condemned to these excessive border control delays for another season.’
Absolutely shocking scenes in Milan Linate airport today 12/04/26. Had waited in a queue for 2 hours just to get to our gate when we were told that the flight had taken off without us. There were over 150 people not on that plane and less than 40 got onto it. Still stuck in Italy unsure wether we will get compensation for the hotel and new flight we’ve had to book. #easyjet #milanlinate #travelling #biometric #biometricpassport
Airport chaos
In April, around 100 easyJet customers were stranded at Milan’s Linate airport because of EES delays.
At the time, the airline said the chaos was ‘outside of [their] control’ and even delayed take-off by 52 minutes to try to give passengers extra time to board.
Sadly, dozens of Brits were left scrambling to find alternative journeys home after some only discovered they had missed their flight once it had taken off without them.
Meanwhile, holidaymaker Rich Pleeth told Metro about the carnage he, his wife, and their two young daughters experienced last week on a British Airways flight from Naples to London.
‘The passport control situation was complete chaos. There was no queue for the electronic gates, but the queue to see a human border officer was around three hours,’ Rich explained.
Will I ever fly into or out of Naples again… No… Not even if you paid me #traveltiktok #italy #naples #naplesairport
‘There seemed to be no coordination at all, and people who couldn’t get through the e-gates were then trying to push to the front of the manual queue.’
Rich recalled it being ‘extremely hot and badly organised,’ with plenty of ‘tempers flaring.’
‘Arguments and fights were breaking out, and lots of people missed our flight. We were incredibly lucky to make it and only did because we managed to get to the front.’
Rich added that travelling with two little girls made it particularly unpleasant.
He said there seemed to be no real process for families or for dealing with people whose flights were about to depart.
‘Watching Naples, what stood out was that the technology itself wasn’t necessarily the biggest problem. It was what happened when the process broke and nobody appeared to be coordinating the response.’
Could there be more EES flexibility?
Continued chaos has led to multiple sources suggesting that some member states will not enforce digital checks after the September deadline.
This is despite Brussels stating it will not extend the discretionary period.
The Guardian reports that a senior airline source said that while they would be monitoring closely, they did not expect to see full enforcement at the busiest European airports.
This includes countries like Greece, which back in April temporarily stopped biometric scans for UK visitors after severe waiting times and long queues built up at airports like Corfu.
While Greek authorities and the Foreign Ministry backtracked in June, clarifying that there is no official or permanent exemption for UK citizens, the country appears to still be unofficially scrapping the checks.
Luke Petherbridge, the director of public affairs at the UK travel industry trade body ABTA, also said it was continuing to push the European Commission to allow discretionary suspension of border checks beyond September.
Petherbridge said ‘there is still some way to go until EES is fully and consistently operational across all participating countries.’
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