Finland’s first Christmas travel rush since the launch of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) is proving painful for non-EU travellers. A new Airports Council International (ACI) Europe report shows that the system—live at Helsinki-Vantaa since October—can lengthen border-control processing times by up to 70 percent. Peak waits of 55 minutes were recorded on 18 December for UK and US nationals who had to stop at biometric-enrolment kiosks before reaching a manual passport booth.
Under EES, every visa-exempt third-country visitor must register four fingerprints and a facial template on first entry; the data remain valid for three years. Helsinki Airport currently has 36 kiosks, but software bugs and a shortage of trained border guards have forced authorities to shut down as many as a third of them at busy times, creating serpentine queues that spill into the main departures hall.
![Biometric Bottlenecks: EU Entry/Exit System Triggers Holiday Queues at Helsinki Airport]()
Finavia, the airport operator, has activated overflow “biometric zones,” diverted departing passengers through unused arrival gates and told airlines to warn customers to arrive three hours early. Registration volumes are expected to jump from 10 percent of daily traffic now to around 35 percent on 9 January, when charter flights to Lapland for the peak winter-sports season begin. ACI has urged the European Commission to consider temporary derogations if bottlenecks are not resolved by Easter 2026.
For corporate travel managers, the operational headaches are immediate. Companies routing staff through Helsinki are padding connection times, issuing step-by-step kiosk guides and exploring premium concierge services for VIPs. Organisations with large UK workforces—now treated as third-country nationals—are most exposed. Travel-tech firms meanwhile are racing to integrate EES pre-registration features into mobile apps so that biometric enrolment can be partially completed before arrival.
Under EES, every visa-exempt third-country visitor must register four fingerprints and a facial template on first entry; the data remain valid for three years. Helsinki Airport currently has 36 kiosks, but software bugs and a shortage of trained border guards have forced authorities to shut down as many as a third of them at busy times, creating serpentine queues that spill into the main departures hall.
Finavia, the airport operator, has activated overflow “biometric zones,” diverted departing passengers through unused arrival gates and told airlines to warn customers to arrive three hours early. Registration volumes are expected to jump from 10 percent of daily traffic now to around 35 percent on 9 January, when charter flights to Lapland for the peak winter-sports season begin. ACI has urged the European Commission to consider temporary derogations if bottlenecks are not resolved by Easter 2026.
For corporate travel managers, the operational headaches are immediate. Companies routing staff through Helsinki are padding connection times, issuing step-by-step kiosk guides and exploring premium concierge services for VIPs. Organisations with large UK workforces—now treated as third-country nationals—are most exposed. Travel-tech firms meanwhile are racing to integrate EES pre-registration features into mobile apps so that biometric enrolment can be partially completed before arrival.
Source: VisaHQ Global Mobility News
