The travel and aviation sector is feeling the squeeze from the European Union's new digital border controls, with industry figures warning that extended queues are denting the summer season and unsettling passengers on both sides of the Channel. The Entry Exit System, designed to register non-EU travellers biometrically, has produced bottlenecks that airlines say are entirely avoidable.
“The failed EES rollout” is causing needless delays and long queues — Ryanair
Ryanair, one of the continent's largest carriers, has told passengers travelling to Europe this summer to prepare for extended waits, blaming what it called the "failed EES rollout" for unnecessary delays. The airline urged UK travellers specifically to allow extra time and expect long lines at passport control. For low-cost carriers, whose business model depends on rapid aircraft turnarounds and tight schedules, even modest increases in processing time can ripple through an entire network and erode margins.
The system requires visitors from outside the EU's Schengen area — 29 countries in all — to register a fingerprint and a photograph on arrival, with the data checked again on departure. Much of the enrolment happens at standalone kiosks, though border officers still handle exceptions such as young children. Phased in since October, the technology was meant to streamline movement, but in practice the combination of new hardware, unfamiliar procedures and staff shortages has created friction at busy hubs.
Border police at Portugal's Faro airport conceded the technology had suffered bugs, though they predicted queues would shrink. The European Commission insists disruption is limited at most airports and pledges continued support for member states. Yet for an industry still recovering from years of disruption, the message is unwelcome: until the system stabilises, airlines and airports alike face the prospect of frustrated customers, missed connections and a fresh layer of cost at the peak of the holiday period.
Airports have begun quantifying that cost. Ground handlers report rising overtime bills, tour operators are rebooking missed connections at their own expense, and several hub airports are studying whether to reallocate terminal space from retail to enrolment kiosks — a direct trade of revenue for throughput. Industry bodies have asked Brussels for a formal review of kiosk capacity targets before the October peak-season assessment, arguing that the current specification was drawn up for passenger volumes the system has already exceeded.
Until enrolment volumes fall, the industry's summer arithmetic is fixed: longer queues, tighter margins, and a border that has become a line item.
For carriers the EES problem is asymmetric: the delay lands on the passenger, but the compensation liability lands on the airline. Watch for a quiet shift in schedule padding on UK–Schengen routes this autumn — that is how airlines internalise a border problem they cannot fix, and it will show up as structurally longer block times and slightly worse aircraft utilisation across the sector.
