ACI Europe and Europe’s airline body, Airlines for Europe (A4E), have called for immediate operational and regulatory changes to the Entry/Exit System (EES), warning that excessive wait times continue to cause disruption.
Nearly six months after the full implementation of the EES, the groups are saying that waiting times remain high, reaching up to five hours in the most extreme cases, and still regularly exceeding two hours.
ACI Europe and A4E say this is because structural shortcomings remain unaddressed. These include inadequate border control staffing, instability affecting the IT systems, the limited deployment and use of Self-Service Kiosks and Automated Border Control gates, and the limited functionalities and deployment of the Travel to Europe pre-registration app.
The groups outlined six changes aimed at reducing operational constraints:
- Eliminating ‘double verification’.
- Optimising biometric verification.
- Preventing duplicate EES profiles.
- Rethinking and upgrading the ‘Travel to Europe’ app and web portal.
- Accelerating and harmonising Automated Border Control for third-country nationals.
- Restoring the possibility of partially suspending the EES in case of excessive waiting times as a permanent flexibility mechanism.
