British tourists flying to Europe this summer may face up to six hours in passport control lines as the EU’s new digital border system struggles under peak demand, the International Air Transport Association warns.
The Entry/Exit System (EES) has been fully active across the Schengen Area since April 10, but early results show long waits and missed flights. Airports Council International Europe reports some travelers have already waited 3.5 hours at busy times. Forecasts suggest these delays could nearly double during the summer peak, with the system already proving unable to handle the volume of arrivals without significant congestion.
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If delays of three hours or more become routine, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates 41 million visitor arrivals and $45.4 billion (£34 billion) in spending could vanish.
Airlines are adjusting their guidance to account for the new reality. Wizz Air now tells British passengers to arrive three hours early, a change from previous recommendations that reflected pre-EES processing times. At the Port of Dover, French authorities briefly suspended biometric checks in May after waits exceeded two hours during the half-term holiday, demonstrating the strain on both air and maritime entry points.
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EU rules currently allow temporary easing of border checks during peak periods, but that flexibility ends in September. The temporary measures were introduced to help manage the transition, but Frontex, the EU’s border agency, has confirmed it has no plans to extend them, leaving airports and ports to cope without additional relief. Industry groups had pushed for an extension until at least late October to cover the entire summer season, but this request was not granted.
Industry groups aren’t asking for a rollback of EES. Instead, ABTA and Airlines UK, along with US and Canadian counterparts, have urged Schengen member states, the European Commission, and UK embassies to improve operations before the busiest travel months. Their requests include better staffing, more e-gates to reduce manual processing bottlenecks, wider use of contingency measures where permitted, and faster adoption of the Travel to Europe pre-registration app. The app, designed to streamline entry for pre-approved travelers, is currently only live in a few countries, such as Portugal and Sweden, limiting its potential impact.
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Separating pre-registered travelers from those who haven’t could also speed up processing. While some destinations still report hour-long queues, ABTA notes many holidaymakers are traveling with minimal disruption, suggesting that operational adjustments at certain border points have mitigated some of the worst delays. The variation in wait times highlights how implementation differs between member states, with some adopting more efficient workflows than others.
Greece is the only country that has suspended EES for British travelers, allowing them to bypass the system entirely. Others, like visitors from North Macedonia, still face long waits, showing the patchwork approach to enforcement across the Schengen Zone.
