Only hours after the Entry/Exit System became mandatory, Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe) and Airlines for Europe (A4E) issued an unusually blunt joint statement from Brussels. Citing two-to-three-hour border waits reported at Paris-CDG, Nice and Bordeaux, the groups asked the European Commission and member states—including France—to allow border police to suspend biometric capture when queues become “excessive.” ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec warned that traveller confidence—especially among transatlantic business visitors—could be damaged just as Europe heads into peak season. A4E added that longer border processing has already caused missed departures: one Paris-to-London morning flight left with 51 ticketed passengers stuck in immigration. The associations emphasise that they support EES but argue operational reality must trump rigid timelines. They propose a traffic-light system allowing border commanders to revert temporarily to manual stamping during spikes, combined with real-time queue-length publishing so airlines can hold flights when warranted. France’s Interior Ministry has not yet responded publicly, but privately officials point to a contingency clause that already lets officers skip fingerprints for children under 12 and during equipment outages. Whether that flexibility will be extended to wider circumstances remains to be seen. For corporate mobility teams, the episode underlines the importance of real-time airport data feeds and traveller tracking tools during the bedding-in period.
Source: ACI Europe Press Release
