European airlines and airports have renewed their concerns over the operational impact of the Entry-Exit System (EES) roll-out, as it becomes mandatory ahead of the peak northern summer travel period.
Effective April 10, all airports in the Schengen region must register 100% of third-country nationals on the new system on entry to the bloc.
Airports Council International (ACI) Europe and Airlines for Europe (A4E) said that, despite current concessions around the implementation of EES, airports were already experiencing severe disruption, with registration queues lasting up to two hours.
The associations warned the European Commission that the situation risked deteriorating further, because from April 10, member states would no longer be able to suspend the system in response to congestion, removing a key safeguard currently used to manage peak demand.
“We reiterate our call on the European Commission and Member States to extend the possibility to fully or partially suspend EES – where operationally necessary – during the entirety of the 2026 summer season,” Olivier Jankovec, DG of ACI Europe, and Ourania Georgoutsakou, MD of A4E, said in a statement.
“This flexibility has proven vital in preventing catastrophic operational disruptions during the progressive roll-out of the system. If the technical and operational issues with EES are not resolved, this flexibility should remain available during future peak travel periods, such as winter 2026/2027,” said Georgoutsakou.
The associations referred to challenges previously identified, including persistent and structural shortages of border control staff, technical and maintenance issues with self-service kiosks, the limited use of automated border control gates, and continued concerns over the reliability of the central EES IT system.
“Against this backdrop, Europe’s airports and airlines are expressing serious concern, not only for the upcoming summer season, but for these next few weeks. The combination of full registration requirements and reduced operational flexibility is expected to place unprecedented strain on border control operations,” said the associations.
